Penobscot has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Only 6% stay in Penobscot for work; outside it, Castine is the main destination (17%, 6 miles). Employers in Penobscot report 101 jobs; 326 of its residents have a job. The two grades for Penobscot are D for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Penobscot apart on work
The figures behind Penobscot’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Penobscot is better than 10% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Penobscot’s grade up ($63,194, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Penobscot’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, Penobscot could be anywhere from D− to C.
Where the trip to work from Penobscot ends
Where Penobscot clocks in
17% of workers
10% of workers
8% 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.
How a workday changes Penobscot
On a workday 306 residents head out to work, 20 work right here, and 81 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Penobscot on a workday afternoon, 19% 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.
What Penobscot’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Penobscot, 2013 → 2023: 149 → 101. 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 Penobscot’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Penobscot takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Penobscot workers work from home, vs 16% across Maine. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 415 commuters (the 18% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Penobscot
About 23% 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.
Getting around Penobscot: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Penobscot is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Maine, on an EPA index of 5.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 504 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). 0.8% of Penobscot households have no vehicle (Maine 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Penobscot’s commuters take a bus or train.
Penobscot places 3,560th of 4,312 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 689 | Edgecomb ME | 1,214 | $109K | 5.6% | 3.1% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,052 | Georgetown ME | 1,101 | $84K | 6.3% | 3.5% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,115 | South Thomaston ME | 1,520 | $87K | 4.2% | 0.0% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,558 | Morton WA | 1,102 | $58K | 13.7% | 15.9% | 17% | D |
| 3,559 | Crivitz WI | 1,137 | $55K | 14.7% | 1.4% | 24% | D |
| 3,560 | Penobscot ME | 1,159 | $63K | 16.0% | 4.2% | 6% | D |
| 3,561 | Nadeau Township MI | 1,080 | $55K | 12.8% | 7.1% | 4% | D |
| 3,562 | Springfield NY | 1,325 | $63K | 20.1% | 4.5% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Penobscot, the top three, the last and three more from Maine.
The towns next door employ 27% of Penobscot
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Penobscot workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penobscot | – | D | B− | 25 min | $63,194 |
| Brooksville | under 3% | — | — | 21 min | — |
| Surry | under 3% | C+ | D | 31 min | $74,508 |
| Castine | 17% | C+ | A− | 14 min | $113,750 |
| Stockton Springs | under 3% | C− | C | 30 min | $74,886 |
| Blue Hill | 10% | C+ | A− | 21 min | $80,377 |
| Sedgwick | under 3% | D | C+ | 23 min | $70,446 |
| Orland | under 3% | B− | C | 40 min | $69,348 |
Same-state neighbors only. Brooksville: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Castine. Darker towns draw more of Penobscot’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 Penobscot: questions
What is the median household income in Penobscot?
$63,194 (±$14,420) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,733 across Maine and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Penobscot?
16.0%, against 10.7% across Maine and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Penobscot?
25 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Maine and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Penobscot work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Castine (17%, 6 mi), Blue Hill (10%, 10 mi), Ellsworth (8%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Penobscot walkable?
Penobscot is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Penobscot without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Penobscot, from the people who make the trip.
More of Penobscot
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.