Photo: Aaron Linville · CC BY-SA 4.0Harbor Beach’s household incomes are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Harbor Beach itself; outside it, Bad Axe draws the most (13%, 17 miles). 16.3% of residents live below the poverty line, where Michigan as a whole has 13.2%. For jobs and income Harbor Beach is better than 4% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (A).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Harbor Beach, in brief
A big share show a job far from home
34% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Commutes from Harbor Beach are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 24 across Michigan. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Michigan worker. Time on the road ↓
Harbor Beach makes and builds things
41% of the jobs based in Harbor Beach are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Harbor Beach residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. 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 572 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Harbor Beach’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Harbor Beach’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($40,809, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (1.6%) is left out: Harbor Beach’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, Harbor Beach could be anywhere from D− to D.
How far it is to work from Harbor Beach
About 34% 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.
Commuting from Harbor Beach: about 15 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Harbor Beach workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 536 commuters (the 9% 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: 41% of jobs based in Harbor Beach
740 jobs are based in Harbor Beach.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Harbor Beach, 2011 → 2021: 709 → 740. 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 Harbor Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Harbor Beach: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 438 residents head out to work, 134 work right here, and 606 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Harbor Beach on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.29 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.
Where people from Harbor Beach work
Where Harbor Beach clocks in
Lines 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.
In Harbor Beach, walking beats the bus
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 20.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 590 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). 10.7% of Harbor Beach households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Harbor Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Harbor Beach compares with U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 99 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 164 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 204 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,396 | Montague CA | 1,157 | $60K | 26.5% | 9.0% | 6% | D− |
| 5,397 | East Ellijay GA | 1,816 | $29K | 26.8% | 2.5% | 8% | D− |
| 5,398 | Harbor Beach MI | 1,556 | $41K | 16.3% | 1.6% | 23% | D− |
| 5,399 | Marks MS | 1,198 | $32K | 18.5% | 8.7% | 17% | D− |
| 5,400 | Taylorsville MS | 1,103 | $38K | 23.8% | 1.6% | 10% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Harbor Beach, 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 Harbor Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Harbor Beach?
$40,809 (±$7,264) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Harbor Beach?
16.3%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Harbor Beach?
15 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Harbor Beach work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bad Axe (13%, 17 mi), Colfax Township (7%, 21 mi), Sand Beach Township (5%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Harbor Beach walkable?
Harbor Beach is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 20% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Harbor Beach without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Harbor Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Harbor Beach
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.