Photo: Doug Kerr · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Pawlet trail those of 70% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Pawlet; the top destination outside it is Manchester (15%, 15 miles). Poverty touches 10.0% of residents, against 10.1% across Vermont. The two grades for Pawlet are C− for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Pawlet
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Pawlet
On income, poverty and job access, Pawlet is better than 21% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Pawlet’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 11% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.8%) is left out: Pawlet’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Pawlet could be anywhere from D to C+.
About 33 minutes each way, longer than most of Vermont
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pawlet workers work from home, vs 17% across Vermont. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 562 commuters (the 20% who work from home are left out). Across Vermont: 82% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Pawlet
On a workday 365 residents head out to work, 70 work right here, and 230 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Pawlet on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.69 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.
Out of Pawlet to work: where people go
Where Pawlet clocks in
15% of workers
9% 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.
Goods, not services: 28% of the jobs in Pawlet
300 jobs are based in Pawlet.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pawlet, 2013 → 2023: 275 → 300. 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 Pawlet’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Pawlet goes to work
About 19% 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.
In Pawlet, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pawlet is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.2% across Vermont, on an EPA index of 5.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 706 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). 7.2% of Pawlet households have no vehicle (Vermont 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Pawlet’s commuters take a bus or train.
Pawlet is 3,954th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 587 | South Hero VT | 1,726 | $127K | 3.5% | 5.9% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 645 | Dummerston VT | 1,859 | $102K | 4.5% | 1.6% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 666 | Bolton VT | 1,277 | $111K | 2.9% | 1.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,952 | Angelica NY | 1,277 | $60K | 8.8% | 3.3% | 4% | C− |
| 3,953 | Madison Township PA | 1,133 | $68K | 12.1% | 3.6% | 2% | C− |
| 3,954 | Pawlet VT | 1,380 | $62K | 10.0% | 2.8% | 16% | C− |
| 3,955 | Akron CO | 1,725 | $57K | 7.5% | 1.9% | 32% | C− |
| 3,956 | Lincolnville SC | 1,241 | $40K | 23.5% | 3.7% | 0% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Pawlet, the top three, the last and three more from Vermont.
Pawlet and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Granville (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Pawlet workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pawlet | – | C− | B− | 33 min | $62,273 |
| Wells | under 2% | C− | C− | 48 min | $75,417 |
| Rupert | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Danby | under 2% | C | D | 30 min | $77,321 |
Same-state neighbors only. Rupert: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Pawlet’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 Pawlet: questions
What is the median household income in Pawlet?
$62,273 (±$13,726) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $81,203 across Vermont and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pawlet?
10.0%, against 10.1% across Vermont and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pawlet?
33 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Vermont and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pawlet work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Manchester (15%, 15 mi), Dorset (9%, 9 mi), Rutland (6%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pawlet walkable?
Pawlet is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.1 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pawlet without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pawlet, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pawlet
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.