Photo: Draconrex · CC BY-SA 3.0Mount Crested Butte has 2.2 jobs for every working resident: 645 people commute in to work
Employers in Mount Crested Butte report 681 jobs, against 313 working residents. About one in ten stay in Mount Crested Butte for work; outside it, Crested Butte is the main destination (32%, 3 miles). A typical one-way commute lasts 13 minutes, where Colorado has 25 and the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Mount Crested Butte: the gist
Mount Crested Butte is where the jobs are
Mount Crested Butte has 681 jobs, 2.2 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Many jobs in Mount Crested Butte pay little
43% of the jobs based in Mount Crested Butte pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 37% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
One in three of Mount Crested Butte works in Crested Butte
100 working residents, 32%, have their main job in Crested Butte, 2.9 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in Mount Crested Butte itself. The commute map ↓
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 313 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Mount Crested Butte on a workday afternoon
On a workday 277 residents head out to work and 36 work right here.
About 1,300 people are in Mount Crested Butte on a workday afternoon, 38% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Crested Butte, 2013 → 2023: 938 → 681. 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 Mount Crested Butte’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip into Mount Crested Butte
Where Mount Crested Butte clocks in
4% 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.
About 13 minutes each way for Mount Crested Butte’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Crested Butte workers work from home, vs 21% across Colorado. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 493 commuters (the 18% who work from home are left out). Across Colorado: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far it is to work from Mount Crested Butte
About 35% 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 Mount Crested Butte: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Crested Butte?
$85,357 (±$29,037) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,470 across Colorado and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Crested Butte?
8.7%, against 9.4% across Colorado and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Crested Butte?
13 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Colorado and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Crested Butte work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Crested Butte (32%, 3 mi), Gunnison (4%, 25 mi), Denver (4%, 126 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Mount Crested Butte without a car?
5% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Crested Butte, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Crested Butte
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.