Photo: LittleT889 · CC BY 4.0Earning a living in Schoolcraft
Only 3% stay in Schoolcraft for work; outside it, Kalamazoo is the main destination (18%, 11 miles). Schoolcraft grades B for jobs and income and B for walkability. A typical one-way commute lasts 23 minutes, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Schoolcraft
How Schoolcraft earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Schoolcraft is better than 61% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Schoolcraft’s grade up (ahead of 66% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($75,000, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (1.8%) is left out: Schoolcraft’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 rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Schoolcraft could be anywhere from C to A.
A place that makes things: 31% of Schoolcraft’s jobs are in goods
845 jobs are based in Schoolcraft.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Schoolcraft, 2011 → 2021: 260 → 845. 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 Schoolcraft’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Schoolcraft by day and by night
On a workday 652 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 823 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Schoolcraft on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.25 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.
The places Schoolcraft commutes to
Where Schoolcraft clocks in
18% of workers
8% 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.
The trip to work from Schoolcraft: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Schoolcraft workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 602 commuters (the 8% 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.
Where in the region Schoolcraft works
About 20% 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.
Driving is how Schoolcraft gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Schoolcraft is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.9% 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 651 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). 4.5% of Schoolcraft households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Schoolcraft’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Schoolcraft is 1,439th among 5,877 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 |
| … | |||||||
| 1,437 | Genola UT | 1,660 | $127K | 10.3% | 0.2% | 4% | B |
| 1,438 | Oconto WI | 1,398 | $93K | 7.3% | 1.2% | 2% | B |
| 1,439 | Schoolcraft MI | 1,439 | $75K | 8.8% | 1.8% | 3% | B |
| 1,440 | South Waverly PA | 1,089 | $88K | 8.6% | 6.8% | 3% | B |
| 1,441 | Meggett SC | 1,484 | $98K | 11.0% | 2.0% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Schoolcraft, 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 Schoolcraft: questions
What is the median household income in Schoolcraft?
$75,000 (±$19,934) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Schoolcraft?
8.8%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Schoolcraft?
23 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Schoolcraft work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Kalamazoo (18%, 11 mi), Portage (13%, 6 mi), Schoolcraft Township (8%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Schoolcraft walkable?
Schoolcraft is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Schoolcraft without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Schoolcraft, from the people who make the trip.
More of Schoolcraft
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.