The farmland which became Carterton was sold off in one acre size plots, so most early settlers were smallholders, although few had any previous experience of this way of life. A number of showmen also settled here, making Carterton their winter quarters and maintenance base.

The soil favoured produce such as grapes, mushrooms, tomatoes, which became famous and even tobacco. Vast greenhouses were widely used to extend the growing season. In the early days, produce had to be delivered to the markets by hand, with men regularly setting off at 5am to push wheelbarrows as far as Oxford to sell their vegetables. Later some local carriers took the produce to the railway station at Bampton for onward transmission to Covent Garden.

Poultry farming was also successful. St Dunstans settled a number of warblinded ex-servicemen here after World War I. Their plots were strung with wires to help them find their way around. Egg production soared. By 1931 the local Trade Directory listed 15 poultry farmers. Later local carriers sent their produce to London from the railway station at Brize Norton, which had been opened in October 1944 to cope with the additional RAF traffic.

Some girls worked in the egg packing station, others went into service with families in Burford, Witney and Oxford. As the motor industry in Oxford developed some local men took employment there, cycling to the Pressed Steel Works at Cowley daily.

In the early 1980s an industrial estate was built in the south of the town and by 2005 two further industrial and retail parks were being developed along Monahan Way.