With 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of Garfield Township works elsewhere
43 jobs are based in Garfield Township; 648 of its residents have a job. The two grades for Garfield Township are B+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Hardly any work in Garfield Township itself; outside it, Bay City draws the most (10%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Garfield Township: the figures worth knowing
Why Garfield Township gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Garfield Township is better than 66% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Garfield Township’s grade up (5.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 29% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (5.3%) is left out: Garfield 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, Garfield Township could be anywhere from B− to A−.
A workday in Garfield Township: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 645 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 40 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Garfield Township on a workday afternoon, 36% 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.
Commuting out of Garfield Township: the destinations
Where Garfield Township clocks in
10% of workers
10% of workers
8% 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 Garfield Township: what the 43 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Garfield Township, 2011 → 2021: 27 → 43. 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 Garfield Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Garfield Township takes about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Garfield Township workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 766 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.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The distance from Garfield Township to work
About 21% 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.
Most of Garfield Township commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Garfield Township is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 836 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). 3.1% of Garfield Township households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Garfield Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Garfield Township is 1,359th among 5,760 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 99 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 249 | Sylvan Lake MI | 1,685 | $106K | 5.4% | 2.9% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,357 | Brighton IL | 2,162 | $80K | 10.1% | 2.6% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,358 | Pelham MA | 1,308 | $114K | 10.3% | 6.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,359 | Garfield Township MI | 1,685 | $97K | 5.5% | 5.3% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,360 | Richmond NH | 1,234 | $89K | 2.7% | 13.4% | 3% | B+ |
| 1,361 | Geneva WA | 2,073 | $142K | 1.8% | 12.1% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Garfield Township, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Next door to Garfield Township
The biggest share goes to Fraser Township (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Garfield Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield Township | – | B+ | C− | 28 min | $96,571 |
| Fraser Township | 6% | C | D | 26 min | $61,571 |
| Mount Forest Township | under 3% | C | D− | 36 min | $64,792 |
| Beaver Township | under 3% | B+ | D− | 29 min | $89,154 |
| Mills Township | under 3% | C | D | 34 min | $71,607 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Garfield 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 Garfield Township: questions
What is the median household income in Garfield Township?
$96,571 (±$8,745) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Garfield Township?
5.5%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Garfield Township?
28 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Garfield Township work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bay City (10%, 17 mi), Midland (10%, 13 mi), Saginaw (8%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Garfield Township walkable?
Garfield Township is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Garfield Township without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Garfield Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Garfield 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.