Photo: Finetooth · CC BY-SA 3.0Work and commuting in Ennis
About one in seven stay in Ennis for work; outside it, Big Sky is the main destination (18%, 20 miles). The two grades for Ennis are C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers, against 12% across Montana.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Ennis: the figures worth knowing
Jobs & income in Ennis: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Ennis is better than 25% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Ennis’ grade up (9.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down.
Unemployment (1.1%) is left out: Ennis’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, Ennis could be anywhere from D to C+.
The daily trip from Ennis: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ennis workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 414 commuters (the 4% 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.
In and out of Ennis on a workday
On a workday 295 residents head out to work, 47 work right here, and 391 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.28 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.
Commuting out of Ennis: the destinations
Where Ennis clocks in
18% of workers
9% of workers
4% 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 Ennis: 438 jobs
438 jobs are based in Ennis.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ennis, 2013 → 2023: 438 → 438. 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 Ennis’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Ennis
About 27% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Ennis
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ennis is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 6.3% across Montana, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 430 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). 3.2% of Ennis households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ennis’ commuters take a bus or train.
Ennis next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500: 2,325th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 380 | Wye MT | 1,055 | $110K | 2.7% | 1.3% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 454 | Clinton MT | 1,040 | $104K | 3.8% | 4.1% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 890 | Churchill MT | 1,167 | $108K | 6.3% | 1.3% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,323 | Clinton WA | 1,419 | $76K | 10.9% | 3.6% | 4% | C |
| 2,324 | Preston MN | 1,318 | $64K | 8.9% | 3.4% | 16% | C− |
| 2,325 | Ennis MT | 1,126 | $70K | 9.4% | 1.1% | 14% | C− |
| 2,326 | Moravia NY | 1,233 | $63K | 10.6% | 4.4% | 16% | C− |
| 2,327 | Monongah WV | 1,055 | $51K | 12.1% | 6.1% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Ennis, the top three, the last and three more from Montana.
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 Ennis: questions
What is the median household income in Ennis?
$69,650 (±$11,464) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ennis?
9.4%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ennis?
23 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ennis work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Big Sky (18%, 20 mi), Bozeman (9%, 40 mi), Billings (4%, 157 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ennis walkable?
Ennis is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ennis without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ennis, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ennis
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.