Photo: Own work by Saltysailor · CC BY-SA 3.0Montague has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
127 jobs are based in Montague for 353 working residents. Montague grades D− for jobs and income and D for walkability. At home: 5% of workers have no commute at all (California 17%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Montague and work: the main findings
Montague and Yreka trade workers both ways
Yreka is the top workplace for Montague residents (30%) and also where the most people who work in Montague come from (21% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
38% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 353 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Montague earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Montague is better than 4% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Montague’s grade up ($59,750, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (9.0%) is left out: Montague’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, Montague could be anywhere from D− to C−.
30% of working residents work in Yreka
Where Montague clocks in
30% of workers
7% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Montague
About 38% 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.
A workday in Montague: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 331 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 105 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Montague on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
Making and building: 39% of jobs based in Montague
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Montague, 2013 → 2023: 122 → 127. 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 Montague’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Montague’s commute takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Montague workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 545 commuters (the 5% 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.
In Montague, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 571 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 3.9% of Montague households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Montague’s commuters take a bus or train.
Montague and other U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Castle Hill CA | 1,026 | $250K | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 15 | Acalanes Ridge CA | 1,006 | $181K | 1.5% | 7.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,004 | Teviston CA | 1,182 | $38K | 39.1% | 30.2% | 2% | D− |
| 4,005 | Town Creek AL | 1,067 | $43K | 27.9% | 7.7% | 2% | D− |
| 4,006 | Montague CA | 1,157 | $60K | 26.5% | 9.0% | 6% | D− |
| 4,007 | Harbor Beach MI | 1,556 | $41K | 16.3% | 1.6% | 23% | D− |
| 4,008 | Marks MS | 1,198 | $32K | 18.5% | 8.7% | 17% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Montague, the top three, the last and three more from California.
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 Montague: questions
What is the median household income in Montague?
$59,750 (±$20,403) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Montague?
26.5%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Montague?
25 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Montague work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Yreka (30%, 5 mi), Redding (7%, 80 mi), Weed (3%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Montague walkable?
Montague is more walkable than 5% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Montague without a car?
0% 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 Montague, from the people who make the trip.
More of Montague
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.