Photo: Christopher L. Riley · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Homer are lower than in 82% of U.S. towns
For 3% of workers, the job is at home, against 14% across Michigan. Below the poverty line: 18.7% of residents; Michigan has 13.2%. Homer grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Homer: the figures worth knowing
Homer and Homer Township trade workers both ways
Homer Township is the top workplace for Homer residents (15%) and also where the most people who work in Homer come from (31% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Homer than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Homer fell from 837 in 2011 to 466 in 2021, −44%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Homer makes and builds things
42% of the jobs based in Homer are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Homer residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 36%. 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 615 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Homer’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Homer is better than 14% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Homer’s grade up (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (5.9%) is left out: Homer’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, Homer could be anywhere from D to C.
15% of working residents work in Homer Township
Where Homer clocks in
15% 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.
In Homer, 42% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
466 jobs are based in Homer.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Homer, 2011 → 2021: 837 → 466. 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 Homer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Homer on a workday
On a workday 531 residents head out to work, 84 work right here, and 382 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 (0.76 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.
Homer’s commute takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Homer workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 720 commuters (the 3% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Homer
About 22% 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.
For most of Homer, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Homer is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 9.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 742 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). 7.4% of Homer households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Homer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200, Homer comes 4,775th 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 | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 105 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 174 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 216 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,773 | Millers Creek NC | 1,689 | $63K | 18.9% | 11.1% | 2% | D |
| 4,774 | Carlisle KY | 2,122 | $49K | 14.8% | 3.0% | 11% | D |
| 4,775 | Homer MI | 1,603 | $55K | 18.7% | 5.9% | 14% | D |
| 4,776 | Cassopolis MI | 1,707 | $41K | 20.5% | 7.3% | 8% | D |
| 4,777 | Goodman MO | 1,320 | $54K | 16.5% | 3.7% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Homer, 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 Homer: questions
What is the median household income in Homer?
$54,737 (±$9,285) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Homer?
18.7%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Homer?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Homer work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Homer Township (15%, 3 mi), Litchfield (7%, 8 mi), Marshall (7%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Homer walkable?
Homer is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Homer without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Homer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Homer
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.