Photo: User:akampfer · CC BY-SA 3.0Mackay draws 273 commuters a day, with 2.7 jobs for every working resident
Home is the office for 5% of workers, where Idaho as a whole has 13%. Employers in Mackay report 296 jobs; 110 of its residents have a job. About one in five stay in Mackay for work; outside it, Challis is the main destination (22%, 51 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Mackay by day and by night
On a workday 87 residents head out to work and 23 work right here.
About 670 people are in Mackay on a workday afternoon, 39% 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.
The towns that send workers to Mackay
Where Mackay clocks in
22% of workers
6% of workers
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.
What Mackay’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mackay, 2013 → 2023: 322 → 296. 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 Mackay’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Mackay spends getting to work: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mackay workers work from home, vs 13% across Idaho. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 141 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Idaho: 84% 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.
The commute from Mackay, by distance
About 62% 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 Mackay: questions
What is the median household income in Mackay?
$43,897 (±$35,291) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,800 across Idaho and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mackay?
19.9%, against 10.6% across Idaho and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mackay?
16 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Idaho and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mackay work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Challis (22%, 51 mi), Idaho Falls (6%, 84 mi), Stanley (4%, 69 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Mackay without a car?
0% 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 Mackay, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mackay
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.