Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Lubec has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
Household incomes here are lower than in 85% of U.S. towns. Lubec has 188 jobs for 355 working residents. For jobs and income Lubec is better than 6% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lubec, in a few figures
A big share show a job far from home
33% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Home offices are common in Lubec
26% of Lubec workers work from home, against 16% across Maine. 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 355 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Lubec’s Jobs & income grade comes from
The poverty rate holds Lubec’s grade up (14.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.7%) is left out: Lubec’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, Lubec could be anywhere from D− to C−.
How far Lubec goes to work
About 33% 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.
About 25 minutes each way, about the ME average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lubec workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 328 commuters (the 26% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Lubec
On a workday 284 residents head out to work, 71 work right here, and 117 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Lubec on a workday afternoon, 14% 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.
14% of working residents work in Machias
Where Lubec 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.
What Lubec’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lubec, 2013 → 2023: 278 → 188. 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 Lubec’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Lubec walk, bike or ride to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 6.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 445 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). 13.2% of Lubec households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Lubec’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Lubec ranks: 4,313th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 378 | Ogunquit ME | 1,606 | $114K | 3.2% | 0.0% | 22% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 406 | Pownal ME | 1,645 | $104K | 5.5% | 0.7% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 782 | Edgecomb ME | 1,214 | $109K | 5.6% | 3.1% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,311 | New Rockford ND | 1,342 | $44K | 12.9% | 3.7% | 30% | D |
| 4,312 | Kettle Falls WA | 1,657 | $49K | 14.5% | 7.3% | 10% | D |
| 4,313 | Lubec ME | 1,237 | $52K | 14.7% | 2.7% | 20% | D |
| 4,314 | Malta Township OH | 1,670 | $54K | 17.6% | 0.0% | 7% | D |
| 4,315 | McCaysville GA | 1,180 | $53K | 16.2% | 0.3% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Lubec, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
The towns around Lubec
The biggest share goes to Eastport (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lubec workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lubec | – | D | B+ | 25 min | $52,375 |
| Eastport | 3% | D− | A | 19 min | $45,573 |
| Pembroke | 2% | — | — | 35 min | — |
| Perry | under 2% | — | — | 26 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Pembroke and Perry: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lubec’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 Lubec: questions
What is the median household income in Lubec?
$52,375 (±$11,274) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lubec?
14.7%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lubec?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 26% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lubec work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Machias (14%, 22 mi), Bangor (5%, 86 mi), Machiasport (5%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lubec walkable?
Lubec is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lubec without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lubec, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lubec
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.