Photo: Jesse Sallak · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Mancelona works elsewhere
Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns. There are 279 jobs in Mancelona, and 531 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Mancelona is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Mancelona
Fewer than half of Mancelona workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Mancelona’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Few Mancelona workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 14% across Michigan. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 531 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Mancelona’s Jobs & income grade
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Mancelona’s grade.
Unemployment (7.3%) is left out: Mancelona’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, Mancelona could be anywhere from D− to C−.
What Mancelona’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mancelona, 2011 → 2021: 287 → 279. 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 Mancelona’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Mancelona’s commute takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mancelona workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 614 commuters (the 2% 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 daily flow of workers through Mancelona
On a workday 486 residents head out to work, 45 work right here, and 234 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Mancelona on a workday afternoon, 18% 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.
15% of working residents work in Kearney Township
Where Mancelona clocks in
14% 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.
Where in the region Mancelona works
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.
In Mancelona, walking beats the bus
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.8% across Michigan.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 626 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). 5.0% of Mancelona households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mancelona’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mancelona places 5,149th of 5,877 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 93 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 152 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,147 | Wilhoit AZ | 1,101 | $58K | 15.9% | 7.5% | 1% | D |
| 5,148 | Bear Creek AL | 1,054 | $50K | 16.4% | 8.2% | 5% | D |
| 5,149 | Mancelona MI | 1,399 | $52K | 16.8% | 7.3% | 8% | D |
| 5,150 | Terrytown NE | 1,040 | $44K | 31.4% | 2.9% | <1% | D |
| 5,151 | Elm City NC | 1,250 | $36K | 33.7% | 8.8% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Mancelona, 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 Mancelona: questions
What is the median household income in Mancelona?
$51,691 (±$4,168) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mancelona?
16.8%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mancelona?
24 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mancelona work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Kearney Township (15%, 8 mi), Mancelona Township (14%, 4 mi), Kalkaska Township (7%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Mancelona walkable?
Mancelona is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 9.8 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mancelona without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mancelona, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mancelona
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.