Photo: Bill Whittaker · CC BY-SA 3.0At 2.4%, unemployment in Clear Lake is lower than in 79% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Clear Lake; the top destination outside it is Mason City (27%, 9 miles). The two grades for Clear Lake are B for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Commuters spend 19 minutes getting to work on average; Iowa averages 20, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Clear Lake apart on work
Clear Lake trades workers with the towns around it
Clear Lake has about as many jobs (3,560) as working residents (3,309), but they are mostly different people: 2,435 residents leave for work each day while 2,686 people come in. Only 25% of the jobs in Clear Lake are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Clear Lake and Mason City trade workers both ways
Mason City is the top workplace for Clear Lake residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Clear Lake come from (19% of its jobs). 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.
Clear Lake’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Clear Lake is better than 64% of U.S. towns, #47 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Clear Lake’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 42% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Clear Lake could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Who leaves Clear Lake for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,435 residents head out to work, 874 work right here, and 2,686 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.08 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The places Clear Lake commutes to
Where Clear Lake clocks in
27% of workers
4% 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.
Jobs in Clear Lake: what the 3,560 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clear Lake, 2013 → 2023: 3,353 → 3,560. 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 Clear Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 19 minutes each way, about the IA average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clear Lake workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,366 commuters (the 10% who work from home are left out). Across Iowa: 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.
Clear Lake’s commute, mile by mile
About 24% 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.
In Clear Lake, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Clear Lake is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns, #52 of 140 in Iowa. Both inputs place Clear Lake near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,750 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 6.4% of Clear Lake households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Clear Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Clear Lake places 1,385th of 3,111 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 5,300 to 10,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 142 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | Bondurant IA | 9,647 | $136K | 6.2% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 213 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,383 | Lynwood IL | 9,297 | $85K | 9.2% | 5.7% | 2% | B |
| 1,384 | Burnet TX | 6,939 | $88K | 8.1% | 2.1% | 13% | B |
| 1,385 | Clear Lake IA | 7,601 | $79K | 8.3% | 2.4% | 26% | B |
| 1,386 | Harrah OK | 7,212 | $84K | 10.8% | 3.3% | 7% | B |
| 1,387 | Ontwa Township MI | 6,839 | $61K | 10.1% | 1.3% | 9% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,111 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Clear Lake, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
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 Clear Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Clear Lake?
$79,415 (±$7,871) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clear Lake?
8.3%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clear Lake?
19 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clear Lake work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mason City (27%, 9 mi), Garner (4%, 12 mi), Forest City (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Clear Lake walkable?
Clear Lake is more walkable than 77% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clear Lake without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Clear Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clear Lake
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.