Households in Scissors have lower incomes than those in 95% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 33.0% of residents, next to 13.8% for Texas as a whole. The two grades for Scissors are C− for jobs and income and D− for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers, where Texas as a whole has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Scissors in brief
Scissors is a place people come home to
There are 5 jobs based in Scissors, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Scissors has about 3,000 people in it, 29% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Scissors workers earn over $40,000 a year
39% of Scissors’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 23% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Few Scissors workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Scissors
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Scissors is better than 17% of U.S. towns, #536 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Scissors’ grade up (ahead of 70% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Scissors could be anywhere from D to B−.
How a workday changes Scissors
On a workday 1,243 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 5 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Scissors on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
0.00 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
80% of the jobs in Scissors make or build things
5 jobs are based in Scissors.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Scissors, 2013 → 2023: 9 → 5. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Scissors’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes each way, quicker than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Scissors workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,544 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Texas: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
13% of working residents work in McAllen
Where Scissors clocks in
13% of workers
13% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
How far it is to work from Scissors
About 21% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Scissors: mostly by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 0.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 3.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,611 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.0% of Scissors households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Scissors’ commuters take a bus or train.
3,402nd of 4,039: where Scissors ranks among U.S. towns of 3,000 to 5,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| 4 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 5 | Haslet TX | 5,267 | $169K | 2.1% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,400 | Madisonville TX | 4,605 | $67K | 13.5% | 8.7% | 24% | C− |
| 3,401 | Dana NC | 4,147 | $60K | 24.7% | 6.4% | 1% | C− |
| 3,402 | Scissors TX | 4,267 | $41K | 33.0% | 5.8% | 0% | C− |
| 3,403 | Iola KS | 5,240 | $54K | 8.6% | 8.4% | 37% | C− |
| 3,404 | Lee Township MI | 3,836 | $65K | 18.7% | 5.6% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,039 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Scissors, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Next door is work for 11% of Scissors
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Donna. Darker towns draw more of Scissors’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Scissors: questions
What is the median household income in Scissors?
$40,938 (±$25,211) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Scissors?
33.0%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Scissors?
23 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Scissors work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are McAllen (13%, 14 mi), Weslaco (13%, 4 mi), Donna (11%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Scissors walkable?
Scissors is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.0 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Scissors without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Scissors, from the people who make the trip.
More of Scissors
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.