Texas has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Employers in Texas report 248 jobs for 783 working residents. Jobs and income earn Texas B+; getting around on foot earns it C−. 5% of workers have no commute at all; Wisconsin has 13%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Texas in brief
What’s behind Texas’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Texas is better than 74% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Texas’ grade up (3.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 43% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Texas could be anywhere from B− to A.
42% of working residents work in Wausau
Where Texas clocks in
42% of workers
6% 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.
Who works in Texas, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 781 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 246 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Texas on a workday afternoon, 33% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
In Texas, 58% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Texas, 2013 → 2023: 189 → 248. 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 Texas’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Texas’ commute takes about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Texas workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,004 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Wisconsin: 86% 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.
Half of Texas commutes less than 11 miles
About 17% 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.
Few in Texas walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Texas is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 3.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,060 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). 1.8% of Texas households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Texas’ commuters take a bus or train.
Texas is 960th of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 958 | Merritt Township MI | 1,325 | $89K | 4.8% | 4.2% | <1% | B+ |
| 959 | Grand Isle VT | 2,172 | $101K | 6.8% | 0.3% | 6% | B+ |
| 960 | Texas WI | 1,604 | $87K | 3.9% | 3.1% | <1% | B+ |
| 961 | Manasota Key FL | 1,711 | $142K | 2.4% | 3.9% | 5% | B+ |
| 962 | Guilford Lake OH | 1,307 | $93K | 5.7% | 2.8% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Texas, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Next door is work for 44% of Texas
The biggest share goes to Wausau (42%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Texas workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | – | B+ | C− | 21 min | $86,875 |
| Maine | 2% | A | B− | 21 min | $110,721 |
| Pine River | under 2% | A− | D | 22 min | $109,722 |
| Wausau | under 2% | B− | C | 24 min | $75,750 |
| Hewitt | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Wausau | 42% | C+ | A− | 15 min | $64,389 |
Same-state neighbors only. Hewitt: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Texas’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 Texas: questions
What is the median household income in Texas?
$86,875 (±$14,082) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Texas?
3.9%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Texas?
21 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Texas work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wausau (42%, 9 mi), Weston (7%, 12 mi), Merrill (6%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Texas walkable?
Texas is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 3.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Texas without a car?
<1% 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 Texas, from the people who make the trip.
More of Texas
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.