Echo Township has 0.1 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs & income C: better than 27% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability C+: more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 57% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 27 minutes each way (Michigan 24, U.S. 26). Only 0% work in Echo Township; the top destination outside it is East Jordan (12%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Echo Township, in brief
What’s behind Echo Township’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Echo Township is better than 27% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Echo Township’s grade up (8.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.8%) is left out: Echo 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, Echo Township could be anywhere from D to B−.
Echo Township quiets down on a workday
On a workday 308 residents head out to work, 0 work right here, and 42 people come in from elsewhere.
About 740 people are in Echo Township on a workday afternoon, 26% fewer than live here.
0.14 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2021, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in East Jordan
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Echo Township clocks in
Lines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Echo Township makes things: 40% of its jobs are in goods
42 jobs are based in Echo Township. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Echo Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Echo Township, 2011 → 2021: 64 → 42. 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.
About 27 minutes each way, longer than most of Michigan
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Echo Township workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 462 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Michigan: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Echo Township commutes less than 17 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 20% 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.
Most trips from Echo Township start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Echo Township is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 3.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 500 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). 0.9% of Echo Township households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Echo Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Echo Township is 1,839th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Echo Township, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 172 | Petersburg MI | 1,152 | $83K | 1.8% | 1.7% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 216 | Freedom Township MI | 1,298 | $113K | 6.7% | 2.5% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,837 | Rio VA | 1,252 | $56K | 22.2% | 8.0% | 5% | C |
| 1,838 | Valley Falls KS | 1,055 | $47K | 5.9% | 1.8% | 9% | C |
| 1,839 | Echo Township MI | 1,009 | $71K | 8.5% | 4.8% | 0% | C |
| 1,840 | Pine Township PA | 1,023 | $56K | 9.6% | 4.5% | 1% | C |
| 1,841 | Clear Lake WA | 1,093 | $72K | 14.0% | 1.9% | 1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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.
13% of Echo Township works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Kearney Township (9%). Darker towns draw more of Echo Township’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Echo Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Echo Township | – | C | C+ | 27 min | $70,833 |
| Central Lake Township | 4% | C | B− | 27 min | $69,891 |
| Kearney Township | 9% | C− | C+ | 18 min | $72,153 |
| South Arm Township | under 3% | C+ | C | 24 min | $84,107 |
| Jordan Township | under 3% | — | — | 28 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Jordan Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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 Echo Township: questions
What is the median household income in Echo Township?
$70,833 (±$17,513) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Echo Township?
8.5%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Echo Township?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Echo Township work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are East Jordan (12%, 6 mi), Kearney Township (9%, 6 mi), Boyne City (5%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Echo Township walkable?
Echo Township is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 3.8 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Echo Township without a car?
<1% 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 Echo Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Echo 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.