About half of Spicer’s working residents commute to Willmar
For 4% of workers, the job is at home; Minnesota has 18%. Jobs and income earn Spicer B−; getting around on foot earns it B+. Only 7% work in Spicer; the top destination outside it is Willmar (46%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Spicer apart on work
Nearly half of Spicer works in Willmar
257 working residents, 46%, have their main job in Willmar, 9.7 miles away. That’s 7 times as many as work in Spicer itself. The commute map ↓
Many jobs in Spicer pay little
38% of the jobs based in Spicer pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 41% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Spicer
58% of Spicer residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 38% of the jobs based in Spicer pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 93% leave town for their job. 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 553 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Spicer’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Spicer is better than 50% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Spicer’s grade up (7.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Spicer’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, Spicer could be anywhere from C to B+.
Where Spicer’s working residents head each day
Where Spicer clocks in
46% of workers
5% 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 the 445 jobs in Spicer are
445 jobs are based in Spicer.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Spicer, 2013 → 2023: 491 → 445. 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 Spicer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Spicer, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 515 residents head out to work, 38 work right here, and 407 people come in from elsewhere.
About 990 people are in Spicer on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.80 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.
The daily trip from Spicer: about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Spicer workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 654 commuters (the 4% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Spicer
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Driving is how Spicer gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Spicer is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 5.7% across Minnesota.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 680 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). 6.2% of Spicer households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Spicer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Spicer ranks 1,260th of 3,771 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Medicine Lake MN | 1,342 | $184K | 2.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Dellwood MN | 1,148 | $225K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Louisville Township MN | 1,361 | $143K | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,258 | Winding Cypress FL | 1,160 | $138K | 18.9% | 0.0% | 0% | B− |
| 1,259 | Garden Plain KS | 1,010 | $85K | 15.9% | 6.2% | <1% | B− |
| 1,260 | Spicer MN | 1,096 | $78K | 7.7% | 1.3% | 7% | B− |
| 1,261 | Searsmont ME | 1,484 | $87K | 6.6% | 3.4% | 3% | B− |
| 1,262 | Derry Township PA | 1,075 | $83K | 11.2% | 3.1% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Spicer, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Spicer and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Green Lake Township (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Spicer workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spicer | – | B− | B+ | 16 min | $77,969 |
| Green Lake Township | 2% | A− | C | 15 min | $107,857 |
| New London Township | 1% | B+ | C− | 23 min | $105,417 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Spicer’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 Spicer: questions
What is the median household income in Spicer?
$77,969 (±$13,239) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Spicer?
7.7%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Spicer?
16 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Spicer work?
7% work in town.
Is Spicer walkable?
Spicer is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Spicer without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Spicer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Spicer
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.