Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri · CC BY 3.0A job hub: Baker has 2.0 jobs per working resident, and 270 people come in to work
Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers, where California as a whole has 17%. There are 277 jobs in Baker, against 137 working residents. Only 5% stay in Baker for work; outside it, Los Angeles is the main destination (7%, 159 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
A workday in Baker: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 130 residents head out to work and 7 work right here.
About 480 people are in Baker on a workday afternoon, 41% more 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.
Where Baker’s workforce comes from
Where Baker clocks in
5% of workers
3% 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 kinds of work in Baker
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Baker, 2013 → 2023: 284 → 277. 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 Baker’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Baker takes about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Baker workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 182 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across California: 79% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The commute from Baker, by distance
About 88% 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.
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 Baker: questions
What is the poverty rate in Baker?
28.4%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Baker?
15 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Baker work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Los Angeles (7%, 159 mi), Barstow (5%, 62 mi), Victorville (3%, 89 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Baker without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 24% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Baker, from the people who make the trip.
More of Baker
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.