Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Brewer (1.4%) is lower than in 91% of U.S. towns
For jobs and income Brewer is better than 58% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (B−). At home: 7% of workers have no commute at all (Maine 16%). About one in five work in Brewer; the top destination outside it is Bangor (43%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Brewer
Much of Brewer works one town over
46% of working residents work in a town that borders Brewer: Bangor (43%) and Hampden (3%). Next door ↓
Most Brewer residents work close to home
71% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Brewer is where the jobs are
Brewer has 6,968 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Brewer are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 25 across Maine. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Maine 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.
Income, poverty and work: Brewer’s grade explained
Unemployment holds Brewer’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($66,613, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Brewer could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
How many miles Brewer commutes
About 16% 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 and out of Brewer on a workday
On a workday 3,829 residents head out to work, 807 work right here, and 6,161 people come in from elsewhere.
About 12,000 people are in Brewer on a workday afternoon, 24% more than live here.
1.5 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 17 minutes each way for Brewer’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brewer workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,078 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Maine: 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.
Where the people who work in Brewer live
Where Brewer clocks in
43% of workers
3% 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.
What Brewer’s employers do
6,968 jobs are based in Brewer.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brewer, 2013 → 2023: 5,774 → 6,968. 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 Brewer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Brewer is a driving town
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 5.0% across Maine.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,382 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). 10.7% of Brewer households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brewer’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Brewer is 1,444th of 2,816 U.S. towns of 6,700 to 13,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 90 | Cumberland ME | 8,876 | $174K | 3.1% | 0.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 180 | Falmouth ME | 12,982 | $151K | 2.3% | 2.7% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 317 | Cape Elizabeth ME | 9,827 | $146K | 5.2% | 2.5% | 10% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,442 | Walker Mill MD | 10,931 | $88K | 10.3% | 8.2% | <1% | B |
| 1,443 | Los Alamitos CA | 11,702 | $97K | 8.9% | 9.2% | 6% | B |
| 1,444 | Brewer ME | 9,636 | $67K | 12.5% | 1.4% | 17% | B |
| 1,445 | Lexington VA | 7,769 | $85K | 14.0% | 0.6% | 44% | B |
| 1,446 | Withamsville OH | 7,429 | $72K | 13.7% | 3.1% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,816 | 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 Brewer, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
Brewer and its neighbors: 46% work next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Brewer workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brewer | – | B | B− | 17 min | $66,613 |
| Bangor | 43% | C | A | 17 min | $59,942 |
| Hampden | 3% | A− | C− | 23 min | $111,959 |
| Veazie | under 2% | B | C | 18 min | $78,229 |
| Orrington | under 2% | A− | C− | 21 min | $94,556 |
| Holden | under 2% | B | D | 25 min | $92,200 |
| Eddington | under 2% | B | D | 32 min | $75,350 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Bangor. Darker towns draw more of Brewer’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 Brewer: questions
What is the median household income in Brewer?
$66,613 (±$9,304) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brewer?
12.5%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brewer?
17 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brewer work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bangor (43%, 4 mi), Hampden (3%, 8 mi), Augusta (3%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brewer walkable?
Brewer is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brewer without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brewer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brewer
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.