Hessel School · Photo: postcard · Public domainEarning a living in Clark Township
About one in three work in Clark Township; the top destination outside it is Sault Ste. Marie (13%, 32 miles). The two grades for Clark Township are C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 29% of workers, against 14% across Michigan.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Clark Township at work: what stands out
Clark Township’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Clark Township is Sault Ste. Marie, 32 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (79) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A lot of Clark Township works from home
29% of Clark Township workers work from home, against 14% across Michigan. Time on the road ↓
Clark Township makes and builds things
43% of the jobs based in Clark Township are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Clark Township residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 21%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2021, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; 2021 is the newest year Michigan has published; with 599 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Clark Township earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Clark Township is better than 21% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Clark Township’s grade up (10.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.2%) is left out: Clark 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 fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Clark Township could be anywhere from D to C+.
The commute from Clark Township, by distance
About 31% 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.
Clark Township’s commute takes about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clark Township workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 464 commuters (the 29% 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.
Making and building: 43% of jobs based in Clark Township
571 jobs are based in Clark Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clark Township, 2011 → 2021: 387 → 571. 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 Clark Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Clark Township by day and by night
On a workday 404 residents head out to work, 195 work right here, and 376 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 (0.95 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.
Commuting out of Clark Township: the destinations
Where Clark Township clocks in
13% 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.
For most of Clark Township, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Clark Township is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 5.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 657 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). 6.1% of Clark Township households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Clark Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Clark Township is 3,969th among 5,509 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 137 | Village of Grosse Pointe Shores MI | 2,533 | $190K | 2.7% | 3.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 213 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,967 | Oak Grove Township IN | 1,597 | $55K | 12.0% | 4.6% | 2% | C− |
| 3,968 | Almer Township MI | 1,989 | $62K | 10.5% | 9.4% | 5% | C− |
| 3,969 | Clark Township MI | 1,996 | $71K | 10.9% | 7.2% | 33% | C− |
| 3,970 | Canoe Township PA | 1,407 | $68K | 12.4% | 4.1% | 1% | C− |
| 3,971 | East Cleveland TN | 1,934 | $49K | 26.5% | 16.6% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Clark Township, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Next door to Clark Township
The biggest share goes to Pickford Township (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Clark Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clark Township | – | C− | B | 17 min | $70,859 |
| Marquette Township | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Raber Township | under 2% | — | — | 37 min | — |
| Pickford Township | 2% | B | C | 24 min | $99,688 |
| Detour Township | under 2% | — | — | 21 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Marquette Township, Raber Township and Detour Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Clark 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 Clark Township: questions
What is the median household income in Clark Township?
$70,859 (±$10,889) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clark Township?
10.9%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clark Township?
17 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 29% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clark Township work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sault Ste. Marie (13%, 32 mi), St. Ignace (5%, 20 mi), Kinross Township (4%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Clark Township walkable?
Clark Township is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clark Township without a car?
<1% 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 Clark Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clark 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.