Photo: Ruralisms · CC BY 4.0Marcus at work: jobs, income and the commute
For 4% of workers, the job is at home, against 11% across Iowa. Jobs and income earn Marcus B−; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in seven stay in Marcus for work; outside it, Cherokee is the main destination (15%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Marcus’ Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Marcus is better than 50% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Marcus’ grade up (5.3%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.1%) is left out: Marcus’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, Marcus could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Who works in Marcus, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 462 residents head out to work, 65 work right here, and 351 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Marcus on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.79 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 Marcus commutes to
Where Marcus clocks in
15% of workers
8% of workers
7% 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 Marcus: what the 416 are
416 jobs are based in Marcus.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Marcus, 2013 → 2023: 388 → 416. 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 Marcus’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 19 minutes from Marcus
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Marcus workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 610 commuters (the 4% 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.
Miles to work from Marcus
About 27% 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.
Most trips from Marcus start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Marcus is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.4% across Iowa.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 638 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 13.8% of Marcus households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Marcus’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Marcus ranks 1,020th of 3,133 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 63 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 119 | Gilbert IA | 1,389 | $123K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,018 | Lodi Township OH | 1,356 | $90K | 6.5% | 0.8% | <1% | B− |
| 1,019 | Pusheta Township OH | 1,235 | $86K | 10.5% | 1.7% | 5% | B− |
| 1,020 | Marcus IA | 1,038 | $78K | 5.3% | 2.1% | 12% | B− |
| 1,021 | Unity Township IL | 1,395 | $81K | 6.7% | 10.7% | 2% | B− |
| 1,022 | Garrett Township IL | 1,328 | $70K | 5.0% | 0.6% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Marcus, 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 Marcus: questions
What is the median household income in Marcus?
$77,981 (±$26,712) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Marcus?
5.3%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Marcus?
19 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Marcus work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cherokee (15%, 14 mi), Le Mars (8%, 19 mi), Sioux City (7%, 37 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Marcus walkable?
Marcus is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Marcus without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Marcus, from the people who make the trip.
More of Marcus
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.