Dry Creek School · Photo: Jackie59715 · CC BY-SA 4.0Hardly anyone in Manhattan is out of work
Below the poverty line: 2.9% of residents; Montana has 11.5%. For jobs and income Manhattan is better than 82% of U.S. towns (A−); for walkability it is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in ten work in Manhattan; the top destination outside it is Bozeman (25%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Manhattan apart on work
Manhattan and Bozeman trade workers both ways
Bozeman is the top workplace for Manhattan residents (25%) and also where the most people who work in Manhattan come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Manhattan has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Manhattan went from 420 in 2013 to 669 in 2023, +59%. 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 928 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Manhattan
Unemployment holds Manhattan’s grade up (hardly any, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 30% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Manhattan could be anywhere from B to A.
Where Manhattan goes to work
Where Manhattan clocks in
25% 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.
Goods, not services: 30% of the jobs in Manhattan
669 jobs are based in Manhattan.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Manhattan, 2013 → 2023: 420 → 669. 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 Manhattan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Manhattan, and who commutes in
On a workday 841 residents head out to work, 87 work right here, and 582 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Manhattan on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.72 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.
A commute of about 17 minutes in Manhattan
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Manhattan workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,098 commuters (the 11% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Manhattan
About 20% 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.
In Manhattan, walking beats the bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,235 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). 0.5% of Manhattan households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Manhattan’s commuters take a bus or train.
Manhattan is 592nd of 5,148 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,800 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 505 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 590 | Hamilton Township PA | 2,778 | $107K | 6.2% | 2.9% | 4% | A− |
| 591 | Jamestown WI | 2,305 | $93K | 3.1% | 1.9% | 5% | A− |
| 592 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| 593 | Altamont NY | 1,648 | $112K | 6.4% | 0.8% | 3% | A− |
| 594 | Marion Township IN | 1,930 | $93K | 6.4% | 0.0% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 822 | Big Sky MT | 2,445 | $139K | 4.7% | 1.4% | 68% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,294 | Three Forks MT | 1,920 | $80K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 11% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,148 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Manhattan, 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 Manhattan: questions
What is the median household income in Manhattan?
$87,865 (±$36,842) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Manhattan?
2.9%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Manhattan?
17 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Manhattan work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bozeman (25%, 18 mi), Churchill (5%, 8 mi), Four Corners (5%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Manhattan walkable?
Manhattan is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Manhattan without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Manhattan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Manhattan
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.