Photo: The original uploader was ColWilliam at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 2.5New Salem has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
New Salem has 96 jobs; 413 of its residents have a job. Jobs and income earn New Salem C+; getting around on foot earns it C+. Only 2% work in New Salem itself; outside it, Amherst Town draws the most (14%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from New Salem, in brief
New Salem is a place people come home to
There are 96 jobs based in New Salem, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday New Salem has about 710 people in it, 31% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from New Salem are quick
The average trip to work takes 23 minutes, against 29 across Massachusetts. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Massachusetts worker. Time on the road ↓
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 413 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind New Salem’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, New Salem is better than 36% of U.S. towns. Household income holds New Salem’s grade up ($79,688, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down. It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (1.9%) is left out: New Salem’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, New Salem could be anywhere from D to B+.
New Salem by day and by night
On a workday 405 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 88 people come in from elsewhere.
About 710 people are in New Salem on a workday afternoon, 31% 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.
The trip to work from New Salem: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of New Salem workers work from home, vs 19% across Massachusetts. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 489 commuters (the 19% who work from home are left out). Across Massachusetts: 75% drive alone, 8% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Where New Salem goes to work
Where New Salem clocks in
14% of workers
5% of workers
5% 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 New Salem: what the 96 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in New Salem, 2013 → 2023: 114 → 96. 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 New Salem’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region New Salem works
About 21% 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 of New Salem commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, New Salem is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 14.1% across Massachusetts, on an EPA index of 3.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 607 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). 1.8% of New Salem households have no vehicle (Massachusetts 11.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of New Salem’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, New Salem ranks 1,519th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 365 | Blandford MA | 1,212 | $92K | 5.5% | 0.3% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 482 | Monterey MA | 1,093 | $152K | 4.1% | 9.4% | 9% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 486 | New Braintree MA | 1,013 | $100K | 7.2% | 5.0% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,517 | Franklin Grove Township IL | 1,199 | $63K | 9.2% | 0.9% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,518 | Spearville Township KS | 1,115 | $73K | 8.5% | 0.0% | 16% | C+ |
| 1,519 | New Salem MA | 1,028 | $80K | 9.7% | 1.9% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,520 | Stambaugh Township MI | 1,212 | $71K | 5.9% | 0.5% | 2% | C+ |
| 1,521 | Farden Township MN | 1,186 | $72K | 7.9% | 4.6% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 New Salem, the top three, the last and three more from Massachusetts.
Next door to New Salem
The biggest share goes to Orange (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | New Salem workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Salem | – | C+ | C+ | 23 min | $79,688 |
| Petersham | under 3% | B | D | 39 min | $110,750 |
| Pelham | under 3% | B+ | C+ | 23 min | $113,750 |
| Belchertown | under 3% | A− | B− | 29 min | $108,068 |
| Ware | under 3% | C | B+ | 28 min | $67,475 |
| Shutesbury | under 3% | B | C− | 33 min | $123,333 |
| Wendell | under 3% | — | — | 33 min | — |
| Athol | 2% | C− | A | 27 min | $69,316 |
| Orange | 3% | D | B+ | 33 min | $55,824 |
Same-state neighbors only. Wendell: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of New Salem’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 New Salem: questions
What is the median household income in New Salem?
$79,688 (±$19,448) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,960 across Massachusetts and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in New Salem?
9.7%, against 10.0% across Massachusetts and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from New Salem?
23 minutes each way on average, against 29 across Massachusetts and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in New Salem work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Amherst Town (14%, 11 mi), Northampton (5%, 20 mi), Springfield (5%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is New Salem walkable?
New Salem is more walkable than 37% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 3.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around New Salem without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from New Salem, from the people who make the trip.
More of New Salem
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.