Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Bark River Township commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
Home is the office for 5% of workers; Michigan has 14%. Employers in Bark River Township report 231 jobs, against 594 working residents. The two grades for Bark River Township are C for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Bark River Township
Why Bark River Township gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Bark River Township is better than 31% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Bark River Township’s grade up (7.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 6% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.2%) is left out: Bark River Township’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
The commuting and job counts on this page are Census LEHD 2021: Michigan reports later than other states, so its newest year is two years behind.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Bark River Township could be anywhere from D to B−.
32% of working residents work in Escanaba
Where Bark River Township clocks in
32% 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.
Who commutes out of Bark River Township, and who commutes in
On a workday 566 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 203 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Bark River Township on a workday afternoon, 23% 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 2021, primary jobs.
A place that makes things: 35% of Bark River Township’s jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bark River Township, 2011 → 2021: 53 → 231. 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 2021.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bark River Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Bark River Township, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bark River Township workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 656 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Michigan: 86% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Bark River Township
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 2021.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Bark River Township, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bark River Township is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 3.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 689 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). 5.9% of Bark River Township households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bark River Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bark River Township places 3,280th of 5,794 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 99 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 164 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 204 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,278 | Meyersdale PA | 1,986 | $66K | 10.0% | 4.3% | 8% | C |
| 3,279 | Watersmeet Township MI | 1,481 | $73K | 7.4% | 3.1% | 27% | C |
| 3,280 | Bark River Township MI | 1,585 | $69K | 7.4% | 3.2% | 5% | C |
| 3,281 | Custer Township MI | 1,213 | $84K | 10.7% | 7.0% | 1% | C |
| 3,282 | Liberty Township PA | 1,131 | $73K | 15.6% | 10.5% | <1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Bark River Township, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Bark River Township and its neighbors: 23% work next door
The biggest share goes to Wells Township (10%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bark River Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bark River Township | – | C | C− | 22 min | $69,375 |
| Harris Township | 9% | D | C | 26 min | $55,104 |
| Ford River Township | under 2% | C | D− | 21 min | $69,878 |
| Wells Township | 10% | C+ | D | 15 min | $72,039 |
| Escanaba Township | 4% | B | C+ | 25 min | $81,250 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bark River Township’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 2021, 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 Bark River Township: questions
What is the median household income in Bark River Township?
$69,375 (±$15,699) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bark River Township?
7.4%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bark River Township?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bark River Township work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Escanaba (32%, 10 mi), Wells Township (10%, 8 mi), Harris Township (9%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Bark River Township walkable?
Bark River Township is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 3.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bark River Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bark River Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bark River Township
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, 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.