Most of Palo commutes out: there are 0.1 jobs for every working resident
Home is the office for 0% of workers (Michigan 14%). Palo has 10 jobs, and 79 of its residents work somewhere. Hardly any work in Palo itself; outside it, Ionia draws the most (18%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The workday shuffle in and out of Palo
On a workday 79 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 10 people come in from elsewhere.
About 310 people are in Palo 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.
Where Palo’s working residents head each day
Where Palo clocks in
6% 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 Palo’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Palo, 2011 → 2021: 10 → 10. 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 Palo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Palo: about 57 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 18.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Palo workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 145 commuters (the 0% 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.
Miles to work from Palo
About 16% 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.
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 Palo: questions
What is the median household income in Palo?
$34,489 (±$24,760) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Palo?
20.3%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Palo?
57 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Palo work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ionia (18%, 10 mi), Grand Rapids (10%, 35 mi), Lowell (6%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Can you get around Palo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Palo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Palo
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.