Photo: Bugeater · CC BY 2.0Alder draws 91 commuters a day, with 3.2 jobs for every working resident
Working from home is the commute for 43% of workers, next to 12% for Montana as a whole. Employers in Alder report 95 jobs, and 30 of its residents work somewhere. About one in seven stay in Alder for work; outside it, Ennis is the main destination (7%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves Alder for work, and who comes in
On a workday 26 residents head out to work and 4 work right here.
About 160 people are in Alder on a workday afternoon, 71% 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.
Where Alder’s workers come from
Where Alder clocks in
7% of workers
7% 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.
Alder works in goods: 65% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Alder, 2013 → 2023: 5 → 95. 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 Alder’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Working from home in Alder
of Alder workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 21 commuters (the 43% who work from home are left out). Across Montana: 81% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Alder
About 43% 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 Alder: questions
What is the median household income in Alder?
$42,500 (±$6,522) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Alder?
9.8%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in Alder work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ennis (7%, 18 mi), Virginia City (7%, 9 mi), Sheridan (7%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Alder 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 Alder, from the people who make the trip.
More of Alder
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.