Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0How Taylor works: jobs, income and commuting
The trip to work takes 30 minutes on average, where Texas has 27 and the U.S. 26. Jobs and income earn Taylor B+; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in seven stay in Taylor for work; outside it, Austin is the main destination (28%, 27 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Taylor at work: what stands out
Why Taylor gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Taylor is better than 66% of U.S. towns, #219 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car is its strongest input (ahead of 77% of U.S. towns); household income ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns ($75,508, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Taylor could be anywhere from B− to A−.
The towns that employ Taylor’s residents
Where Taylor clocks in
28% of workers
8% of workers
4% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Taylor
On a workday 7,127 residents head out to work, 1,226 work right here, and 4,475 people come in from elsewhere.
About 16,000 people are in Taylor on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.68 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.
Jobs in Taylor: what the 5,701 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Taylor, 2013 → 2023: 5,224 → 5,701. 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 Taylor’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Taylor takes about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Taylor workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,120 commuters (the 14% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Taylor
About 22% 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.
Most of Taylor commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Taylor is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #138 of 642 in Texas. Both inputs place Taylor near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 8,259 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.7% of Taylor households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Taylor’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 13,000 to 25,000, Taylor ranks 930th of 1,915 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Bellaire TX | 17,434 | $244K | 2.4% | 3.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 74 | Rendon TX | 14,632 | $118K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 928 | East San Gabriel CA | 23,410 | $109K | 11.6% | 6.7% | 3% | B+ |
| 929 | Bradley IL | 15,214 | $67K | 7.7% | 2.9% | 14% | B+ |
| 930 | Taylor TX | 18,402 | $76K | 7.7% | 4.1% | 15% | B+ |
| 931 | Acworth GA | 22,925 | $84K | 7.7% | 5.3% | 4% | B+ |
| 932 | Swansea IL | 14,356 | $92K | 8.7% | 5.7% | 5% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,915 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Taylor, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
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 Taylor: questions
What is the median household income in Taylor?
$75,508 (±$5,932) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Taylor?
7.7%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Taylor?
30 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Taylor work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Austin (28%, 27 mi), Round Rock (8%, 14 mi), Georgetown (4%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Taylor walkable?
Taylor is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Taylor without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Taylor, from the people who make the trip.
More of Taylor
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.