Photo: Gpwitteveen · CC BY-SA 3.0Brethren at work: jobs, income and the commute
7% of workers work from home, against 14% across Michigan. Only 3% stay in Brethren for work; outside it, Manistee Township is the main destination (18%, 12 miles). A typical one-way commute lasts 33 minutes, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves Brethren for work, and who comes in
On a workday 95 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 100 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.05 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2021, primary jobs.
The places Brethren commutes to
Where Brethren clocks in
18% of workers
6% of workers
6% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Brethren
103 jobs are based in Brethren.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brethren, 2011 → 2021: 23 → 103. 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 Brethren’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Brethren: about 33 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brethren workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 111 commuters (the 7% 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.
The commute from Brethren, by distance
About 28% 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.
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 Brethren: questions
What is the median household income in Brethren?
$52,083 (±$35,794) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brethren?
18.2%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brethren?
33 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brethren work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Manistee Township (18%, 12 mi), Manistee (6%, 16 mi), Traverse City (6%, 37 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Can you get around Brethren without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brethren, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brethren
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.