Jobs and earnings in Shepherd, and the trip to work
Only 7% work in Shepherd; the top destination outside it is Mount Pleasant (22%, 7 miles). Jobs and income earn Shepherd C; getting around on foot earns it A−. Home is the office for 3% of workers, where Michigan as a whole has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Shepherd apart on work
Commutes from Shepherd are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 24 across Michigan. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Michigan worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Shepherd 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 619 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Shepherd’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Shepherd is better than 30% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Shepherd’s grade up (ahead of 46% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.0%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (0.9%) is left out: Shepherd’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, Shepherd could be anywhere from C− to B.
About 18 minutes each way, quicker than most of Michigan
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shepherd workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 760 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Shepherd
On a workday 576 residents head out to work, 43 work right here, and 420 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Shepherd on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
0.75 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.
The places Shepherd commutes to
Where Shepherd clocks in
22% 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.
Inside Shepherd’s 463 jobs
463 jobs are based in Shepherd.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shepherd, 2011 → 2021: 476 → 463. 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 Shepherd’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Shepherd
About 19% 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.
Shepherd is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Shepherd is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.8% across Michigan, on an EPA index of 7.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 782 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). 2.7% of Shepherd households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Shepherd’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Shepherd is 3,072nd of 5,397 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 86 | Caledonia MI | 1,778 | $106K | 3.7% | 0.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Dimondale MI | 1,183 | $111K | 3.2% | 4.6% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 185 | Wheatfield Township MI | 1,659 | $117K | 1.9% | 2.7% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,070 | Victoria MS | 1,121 | $70K | 36.8% | 0.0% | 0% | C |
| 3,071 | Bronson FL | 1,292 | $62K | 8.5% | 4.4% | 10% | C |
| 3,072 | Shepherd MI | 1,513 | $70K | 17.0% | 0.9% | 7% | C |
| 3,073 | Webberville MI | 1,314 | $58K | 18.7% | 6.4% | 4% | C |
| 3,074 | Velda City MO | 1,309 | $37K | 21.6% | 2.8% | <1% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,397 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Shepherd, 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 Shepherd: questions
What is the median household income in Shepherd?
$70,156 (±$10,510) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shepherd?
17.0%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shepherd?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shepherd work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mount Pleasant (22%, 7 mi), Chippewa Township (10%, 5 mi), Coe Township (9%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is Shepherd walkable?
Shepherd is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Shepherd 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 Shepherd, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shepherd
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.