Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0For about half of its working residents, Laurel is a commute to Billings
About one in five work in Laurel; the top destination outside it is Billings (48%, 13 miles). Laurel grades B for jobs and income and A− for walkability. The average commute, 19 minutes each way, matches the Montana norm.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Laurel at work: what stands out
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Laurel
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Laurel is better than 56% of U.S. towns, #13 of 42 in Montana. Unemployment holds Laurel’s grade up (2.4%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($68,474, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Laurel could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Out of Laurel to work: where people go
Where Laurel clocks in
48% of workers
2% 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.
Laurel quiets down on a workday
On a workday 2,896 residents head out to work, 618 work right here, and 1,796 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,100 people are in Laurel on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.
0.69 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Jobs in Laurel: what the 2,414 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laurel, 2013 → 2023: 2,182 → 2,414. 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 Laurel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 19 minutes in Laurel
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laurel workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,349 commuters (the 12% 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.
How far Laurel’s workers travel
About 15% 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: Laurel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Laurel is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns, #23 of 42 in Montana. Both inputs place Laurel near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,808 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.0% of Laurel households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Laurel’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,205 U.S. towns of 5,000 to 9,700, Laurel comes 1,633rd on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 756 | Four Corners MT | 5,791 | $101K | 6.3% | 0.5% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,257 | Helena Valley Northwest MT | 5,183 | $101K | 2.6% | 4.5% | 5% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,398 | Bigfork MT | 5,565 | $85K | 5.7% | 1.8% | 31% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,631 | Tolleson AZ | 9,224 | $60K | 18.0% | 2.4% | 10% | B |
| 1,632 | Holly MI | 5,906 | $64K | 8.5% | 4.2% | 6% | B |
| 1,633 | Laurel MT | 7,205 | $68K | 10.0% | 2.4% | 18% | B |
| 1,634 | Edgartown MA | 5,446 | $125K | 4.7% | 5.4% | 33% | B |
| 1,635 | Fern Park FL | 7,981 | $59K | 12.5% | 3.4% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,205 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Laurel, 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 Laurel: questions
What is the median household income in Laurel?
$68,474 (±$5,913) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laurel?
10.0%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Laurel?
19 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Laurel work?
18% work in town.
Is Laurel walkable?
Laurel is more walkable than 78% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laurel without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Laurel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laurel
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.