Photo: Phoenix-Five · CC BY-SA 4.0Fife Lake has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Working from home is the commute for 7% of workers, against 14% across Michigan. Fife Lake has 46 jobs; 195 of its residents have a job. Hardly any work in Fife Lake itself; outside it, Traverse City draws the most (34%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Fife Lake by day and by night
On a workday 195 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 46 people come in from elsewhere.
About 320 people are in Fife Lake on a workday afternoon, 32% 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.
Where people from Fife Lake work
Where Fife Lake clocks in
34% of workers
11% of workers
4% 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.
Jobs in Fife Lake: what the 46 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fife Lake, 2011 → 2021: 18 → 46. 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 Fife Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Fife Lake: about 39 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fife Lake workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 152 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.
How far Fife Lake goes to work
About 18% 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 Fife Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Fife Lake?
$68,472 (±$11,441) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fife Lake?
7.3%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fife Lake?
39 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fife Lake work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Traverse City (34%, 18 mi), Garfield Township (11%, 17 mi), Green Lake Township (4%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Can you get around Fife Lake 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 Fife Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fife Lake
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.