Reading has lower household incomes than 89% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 24.6% of residents (Michigan 13.2%). Reading grades D− for jobs and income and C for walkability. For 3% of workers, the job is at home; Michigan has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Reading
A big share show a job far from home
33% 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 ↓
Few Reading workers work from home
Only 3% 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 443 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Why Reading gets the Jobs & income grade it does
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Reading’s grade.
Unemployment (6.1%) is left out: Reading’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, Reading could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Short hops and long hauls from Reading
About 33% 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.
The trip to work from Reading: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Reading workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 435 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.
Reading on a workday afternoon
On a workday 430 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 269 people come in from elsewhere.
About 920 people are in Reading on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.64 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
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 Reading work
Where Reading clocks in
10% 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.
Jobs in Reading: what the 282 are
282 jobs are based in Reading.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Reading, 2011 → 2021: 224 → 282. 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 Reading’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Reading walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Reading is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Reading 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 447 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). 5.9% of Reading households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Reading’s commuters take a bus or train.
Reading and other U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 95 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 225 | Petersburg MI | 1,152 | $83K | 1.8% | 1.7% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 275 | Freedom Township MI | 1,298 | $113K | 6.7% | 2.5% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,505 | Rocky Boy West MT | 1,007 | $63K | 36.1% | 9.7% | 12% | D− |
| 3,506 | Oberlin LA | 1,286 | $32K | 22.1% | 3.1% | 12% | D− |
| 3,507 | Reading MI | 1,084 | $49K | 24.6% | 6.1% | 3% | D− |
| 3,508 | California Township MI | 1,190 | $47K | 40.7% | 3.2% | <1% | D− |
| 3,509 | Moore Township MI | 1,092 | $49K | 18.6% | 3.6% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Reading, 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 Reading: questions
What is the median household income in Reading?
$49,342 (±$15,015) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Reading?
24.6%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Reading?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Reading work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hillsdale (14%, 8 mi), Coldwater (10%, 15 mi), Jonesville (7%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Reading walkable?
Reading is more walkable than 31% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Reading without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Reading, from the people who make the trip.
More of Reading
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.