Photo: Jakes19 · Public domainMoose Lake draws 1,490 commuters a day, with 2.1 jobs for every working resident
About one in four work in Moose Lake itself; outside it, Duluth draws the most (11%, 37 miles). Employers in Moose Lake report 1,738 jobs, and 843 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Moose Lake is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Moose Lake in brief
Moose Lake is where the jobs are
Moose Lake has 1,738 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Moose Lake’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Moose Lake is Duluth, 37 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (93) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Nearly all the work in Moose Lake is services
92% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 1% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 843 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Moose Lake
Household income holds Moose Lake’s grade up ($64,286, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (51.2%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (12.1%) is left out: Moose Lake’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Moose Lake could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The daily commute in and out of Moose Lake
On a workday 595 residents head out to work and 248 work right here.
About 3,800 people are in Moose Lake on a workday afternoon, 30% 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.
The commute from Moose Lake, by distance
About 32% 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.
In Moose Lake, services account for most jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Moose Lake, 2013 → 2023: 2,001 → 1,738. 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 Moose Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip into Moose Lake
Where Moose Lake clocks in
11% of workers
3% 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.
A commute of about 19 minutes in Moose Lake
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Moose Lake workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 349 commuters (the 16% 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.
Driving is how Moose Lake gets around
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 414 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). 10.8% of Moose Lake households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Moose Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Moose Lake and other U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Independence MN | 3,763 | $187K | 1.1% | 0.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Deephaven MN | 3,794 | $198K | 1.7% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 17 | Greenfield MN | 2,962 | $154K | 1.2% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,241 | Cricket NC | 2,317 | $40K | 27.0% | 3.4% | 0% | D |
| 4,242 | Havana IL | 2,799 | $41K | 24.0% | 5.0% | 32% | D |
| 4,243 | Moose Lake MN | 2,948 | $64K | 51.2% | 12.1% | 29% | D |
| 4,244 | L'Anse Township MI | 3,634 | $55K | 15.9% | 6.5% | 31% | D |
| 4,245 | Brockway WI | 2,991 | $50K | 19.3% | 8.6% | 15% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,618 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Moose Lake, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Moose Lake and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Moose Lake Township (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Moose Lake workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moose Lake | – | D | B+ | 19 min | $64,286 |
| Moose Lake Township | 2% | B− | D | 24 min | $86,696 |
| Silver Township | under 2% | — | — | 31 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Silver Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Moose Lake’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Moose Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Moose Lake?
$64,286 (±$16,747) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Moose Lake?
51.2%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Moose Lake?
19 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Moose Lake work?
29% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Duluth (11%, 37 mi), Cloquet (5%, 23 mi), Minneapolis (3%, 106 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Moose Lake walkable?
Moose Lake is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Moose Lake without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Moose Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Moose Lake
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. 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.