Photo: Mitchazenia · CC BY-SA 4.0Detroit has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Detroit has 10 jobs; 32 of its residents have a job. Only 3% stay in Detroit for work; outside it, Pittsfield is the main destination (16%, 7 miles). Home is the office for 0% of workers; Illinois has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Detroit quiets down on a workday
On a workday 31 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 9 people come in from elsewhere.
About 52 people are in Detroit on a workday afternoon, 30% 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.
Where Detroit goes to work
Where Detroit clocks in
16% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Detroit
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
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 Detroit’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Working from home in Detroit
of Detroit workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 14 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% 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 Detroit, by distance
About 19% 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 Detroit: questions
What is the poverty rate in Detroit?
16.7%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in Detroit work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pittsfield (16%, 7 mi), Spring Creek Township (9%, 12 mi), Peoria (6%, 96 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Detroit 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 Detroit, from the people who make the trip.
More of Detroit
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.