Photo: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States · CC BY 2.0A job hub: Marquette has 1.9 jobs per working resident, and 9,069 people come in to work
Employers in Marquette report 12,801 jobs for 6,696 working residents. The two grades for Marquette are C for jobs and income and A for walkability. More than half work in Marquette itself; outside it, Marquette Township draws the most (5%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Marquette in brief
Commutes from Marquette are quick
The average trip to work takes 13 minutes, against 24 across Michigan. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Michigan worker. Time on the road ↓
Marquette is where the jobs are
Marquette has 12,801 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A young workforce
30% of Marquette’s working residents are 29 or younger. 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.
The figures behind Marquette’s Jobs & income grade
On family income, poverty and job access, Marquette is better than 28% of U.S. towns, #560 of 701 in Michigan. Family income holds Marquette’s grade up ($89,196, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate pulls it down (15.5%, U.S. 11.9%).
25% of Marquette’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (18% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 15.5%, against 22.4% for all residents. Unemployment (4.3%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($89,196), since student households pull the household median down ($55,613).
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 family income and poverty, Marquette could be anywhere from C− to C+.
About 13 minutes to work from Marquette
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Marquette workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 10,476 commuters (the 7% 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 Marquette
On a workday 2,964 residents head out to work and 3,732 work right here.
About 28,000 people are in Marquette on a workday afternoon, 28% more 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.
The kinds of work in Marquette
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Marquette, 2011 → 2021: 14,779 → 12,801. 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 Marquette’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Marquette’s workers come from
Where Marquette clocks in
5% of workers
2% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Marquette
About 26% 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.
Marquette is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Marquette is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns, #13 of 701 in Michigan. Both inputs place Marquette near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 11,217 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). 7.7% of Marquette households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Marquette’s commuters take a bus or train.
Marquette is 1,543rd of 1,847 U.S. towns of 15,000 to 30,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Berkley MI | 15,145 | $116K | 4.5% | 2.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Oakland Township MI | 20,631 | $167K | 2.7% | 3.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 136 | Hartland Township MI | 16,108 | $109K | 3.1% | 2.1% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,541 | Shelby NC | 23,309 | $48K | 17.6% | 3.6% | 23% | C |
| 1,542 | Cloverleaf TX | 24,063 | $55K | 24.0% | 7.5% | 1% | C |
| 1,543 | Marquette MI | 21,944 | $56K | 22.4% | 4.3% | 56% | C |
| 1,544 | Front Royal VA | 15,722 | $65K | 14.3% | 5.0% | 19% | C |
| 1,545 | Ottumwa IA | 25,319 | $61K | 17.2% | 4.6% | 49% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 1,847 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Marquette, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
Work in the towns next to Marquette
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Marquette workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marquette | – | C | A | 13 min | $55,613 |
| Marquette Township | 5% | C+ | B | 11 min | $57,983 |
| Trowbridge Park | under 2% | — | — | 11 min | — |
| Sands Township | under 2% | B+ | C | 18 min | $87,443 |
| Harvey | under 2% | — | — | 16 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Trowbridge Park and Harvey: Census-designated places inside larger towns, graded as part of them. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Marquette Township. Darker towns draw more of Marquette’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.
- Students. 25% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Marquette: questions
What is the median household income in Marquette?
$55,613 (±$4,562) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Marquette?
22.4% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 15.5%. Michigan: 13.2%.
How long is the commute from Marquette?
13 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Marquette work?
56% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Marquette Township (5%, 7 mi), Escanaba (2%, 58 mi), Chocolay Township (2%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Marquette walkable?
Marquette is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.3 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Marquette without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Marquette, from the people who make the trip.
More of Marquette
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.