Photo: User:Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Franklin commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
There are 135 jobs in Franklin for 620 working residents. The two grades for Franklin are D for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Only 4% work in Franklin itself; outside it, Ellsworth draws the most (22%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Franklin: the gist
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Franklin
On income, poverty and job access, Franklin is better than 11% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Franklin’s grade up ($65,455, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.9%) is left out: Franklin’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, Franklin could be anywhere from D− to C.
Who commutes out of Franklin, and who commutes in
On a workday 598 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 113 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Franklin on a workday afternoon, 29% 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 Franklin’s working residents head each day
Where Franklin clocks in
22% of workers
12% 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.
A place that makes things: 38% of Franklin’s jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Franklin, 2013 → 2023: 92 → 135. 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 Franklin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Franklin: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Franklin workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 732 commuters (the 12% 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.
How many miles Franklin commutes
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.
In Franklin, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Franklin is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Franklin near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 834 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). 1.5% of Franklin households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Franklin’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Franklin is 4,403rd of 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 245 | Dayton ME | 2,182 | $114K | 3.7% | 0.2% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 499 | Ogunquit ME | 1,606 | $114K | 3.2% | 0.0% | 22% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 544 | Pownal ME | 1,645 | $104K | 5.5% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,401 | L'Anse MI | 1,922 | $52K | 10.8% | 8.1% | 18% | D |
| 4,402 | Sandoval Township IL | 2,140 | $55K | 20.2% | 5.2% | 6% | D |
| 4,403 | Franklin ME | 1,666 | $65K | 15.7% | 7.9% | 4% | D |
| 4,404 | Riverton Township MI | 1,232 | $63K | 17.6% | 13.6% | 3% | D |
| 4,405 | North Township OH | 1,549 | $61K | 18.0% | 1.2% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Franklin, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
The towns around Franklin
The biggest share goes to Sullivan (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Franklin’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 Franklin: questions
What is the median household income in Franklin?
$65,455 (±$15,583) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Franklin?
15.7%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Franklin?
29 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Franklin work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ellsworth (22%, 12 mi), Bar Harbor (12%, 14 mi), Sullivan (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Franklin walkable?
Franklin is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Franklin without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Franklin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Franklin
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.