Photo: Schwerdf · CC BY 4.0Unemployment in New Ulm (3.0%) is lower than in 70% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers; Minnesota has 18%. For jobs and income New Ulm is better than 48% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (A). More than half work in New Ulm; the top destination outside it is Sleepy Eye (3%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in New Ulm, in a few figures
Why New Ulm gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Unemployment holds New Ulm’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($64,449, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, New Ulm could be anywhere from C to B.
About 12 minutes each way for New Ulm’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of New Ulm workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,551 commuters (the 6% 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.
New Ulm fills up on a workday
On a workday 2,479 residents head out to work, 3,186 work right here, and 5,178 people come in from elsewhere.
About 17,000 people are in New Ulm on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.48 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where New Ulm goes to work
Where New Ulm clocks in
3% of workers
2% 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.
What work there is in New Ulm: 8,364 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in New Ulm, 2013 → 2023: 8,172 → 8,364. 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 New Ulm’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from New Ulm
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.
Good to walk, short on transit: New Ulm
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,938 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 New Ulm households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of New Ulm’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,426th of 2,227: where New Ulm ranks among U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 4 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Mendota Heights MN | 11,475 | $133K | 2.8% | 1.4% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Victoria MN | 12,447 | $196K | 2.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,424 | London OH | 10,813 | $60K | 10.8% | 4.0% | 19% | B− |
| 1,425 | Lakeland Village CA | 12,236 | $86K | 10.9% | 5.7% | 2% | B− |
| 1,426 | New Ulm MN | 13,863 | $64K | 9.2% | 3.0% | 56% | B− |
| 1,427 | Coweta OK | 11,472 | $68K | 13.2% | 4.0% | 6% | B− |
| 1,428 | North Auburn CA | 13,480 | $71K | 11.1% | 4.3% | 13% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 New Ulm, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Work in the towns next to New Ulm
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | New Ulm workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Ulm | – | B− | A | 12 min | $64,449 |
| Milford Township | under 1% | — | — | 16 min | — |
| Courtland Township | under 1% | — | — | 18 min | — |
| Cottonwood Township | under 1% | — | — | 21 min | — |
| Lafayette Township | under 1% | — | — | 22 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Milford Township, Courtland Township, Cottonwood Township and Lafayette Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of New Ulm’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 New Ulm: questions
What is the median household income in New Ulm?
$64,449 (±$4,330) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in New Ulm?
9.2%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from New Ulm?
12 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in New Ulm work?
56% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sleepy Eye (3%, 13 mi), Home Township (2%, 11 mi), Hutchinson (2%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is New Ulm walkable?
New Ulm is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around New Ulm without a car?
1% 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 New Ulm, from the people who make the trip.
More of New Ulm
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.