Photo: Dwight Burdette · CC BY 3.0Grass Lake at work: jobs, income and the commute
Grass Lake grades B+ for jobs and income and B for walkability. Only 3% work in Grass Lake; the top destination outside it is Jackson (11%, 10 miles). The average commute takes 29 minutes each way; Michigan averages 24, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Grass Lake, in brief
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Grass Lake
On income, poverty and job access, Grass Lake is better than 71% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input (5.6%, U.S. 12.5%); household income ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns ($80,938, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (3.5%) is left out: Grass Lake’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, Grass Lake could be anywhere from B− to A.
How long Grass Lake spends getting to work: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Grass Lake workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 554 commuters (the 15% 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.
A workday in Grass Lake: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 325 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 264 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 (0.82 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 Grass Lake commutes to
Where Grass Lake clocks in
11% of workers
10% 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.
What the 274 jobs in Grass Lake are
274 jobs are based in Grass Lake.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Grass Lake, 2011 → 2021: 261 → 274. 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 Grass Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Grass Lake
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.
Most of Grass Lake commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Grass Lake is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 6.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 651 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). 0.6% of Grass Lake households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Grass Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Grass Lake ranks 571st of 3,771 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 225 | Petersburg MI | 1,152 | $83K | 1.8% | 1.7% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 275 | Freedom Township MI | 1,298 | $113K | 6.7% | 2.5% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 569 | Sugar Creek Township IN | 1,059 | $70K | 5.5% | 6.2% | 1% | B+ |
| 570 | Waukechon WI | 1,034 | $102K | 6.5% | 1.0% | 1% | B+ |
| 571 | Grass Lake MI | 1,098 | $81K | 5.6% | 3.5% | 3% | B+ |
| 572 | Santa Fe Township IL | 1,215 | $89K | 2.9% | 0.4% | 2% | B+ |
| 573 | New Marlborough MA | 1,500 | $117K | 2.5% | 3.5% | 12% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Grass Lake, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
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 Grass Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Grass Lake?
$80,938 (±$17,514) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Grass Lake?
5.6%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Grass Lake?
29 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Grass Lake work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (11%, 10 mi), Chelsea (10%, 10 mi), Leoni Township (7%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Grass Lake walkable?
Grass Lake is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Grass 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 Grass Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Grass 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. 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.