Mentor has 1.8 jobs for every working resident: 74 people commute in to work
Employers in Mentor report 75 jobs; 42 of its residents have a job. Only 2% work in Mentor; the top destination outside it is Thief River Falls (17%, 29 miles). Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers, against 18% across Minnesota.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves Mentor for work, and who comes in
On a workday 41 residents head out to work and 1 work right here.
About 140 people are in Mentor on a workday afternoon, 31% 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 2023, primary jobs.
Who travels to work in Mentor, and from where
Where Mentor 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Mentor
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mentor, 2013 → 2023: 65 → 75. 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 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Mentor’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Mentor, about 28 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mentor workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 69 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across Minnesota: 84% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far Mentor’s workers travel
About 21% 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 2023.
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 2023, 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 Mentor: questions
What is the median household income in Mentor?
$41,667 (±$11,368) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mentor?
10.7%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mentor?
28 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mentor work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Thief River Falls (17%, 29 mi), Fosston (10%, 20 mi), Crookston (10%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Mentor without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mentor, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mentor
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, 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.