Photo: Sanfranman59 · CC BY-SA 3.0Brewster has lower unemployment (1.4%) than 91% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Brewster B; getting around on foot earns it B. Household incomes here are lower than in 78% of U.S. towns. Only 7% work in Brewster; the top destination outside it is Massillon (11%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Brewster stands out on work
Brewster makes and builds things
53% of the jobs based in Brewster are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Brewster residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 32%. The jobs ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Brewster than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Brewster fell from 1,620 in 2013 to 917 in 2023, −43%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. 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 943 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Brewster’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Brewster is better than 61% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Brewster’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($57,192, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Brewster could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Goods, not services: 53% of the jobs in Brewster
917 jobs are based in Brewster.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brewster, 2013 → 2023: 1,620 → 917. 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 Brewster’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Brewster on a workday afternoon
On a workday 881 residents head out to work, 62 work right here, and 855 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 (0.97 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.
Out of Brewster to work: where people go
Where Brewster clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
How long Brewster spends getting to work: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brewster workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 940 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Ohio: 86% 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.
The commute from Brewster, by distance
About 16% 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 Brewster, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Brewster is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.7% across Ohio, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,006 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). 2.1% of Brewster households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brewster’s commuters take a bus or train.
Brewster places 1,732nd of 5,641 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,500 to 3,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | New California OH | 1,672 | $162K | 0.0% | 1.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Jersey Township OH | 2,678 | $136K | 2.4% | 1.2% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Silver Lake OH | 2,504 | $140K | 2.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,730 | Robinson Township PA | 1,672 | $83K | 13.3% | 1.6% | 4% | B |
| 1,731 | Stonewall LA | 2,716 | $57K | 9.7% | 0.4% | 3% | B |
| 1,732 | Brewster OH | 2,192 | $57K | 10.0% | 1.4% | 7% | B |
| 1,733 | Morris CT | 2,300 | $109K | 6.8% | 8.2% | 5% | B |
| 1,734 | Jefferson Township OH | 1,791 | $74K | 4.4% | 3.6% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,641 | 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 Brewster, the top three, the last and three more from Ohio.
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 Brewster: questions
What is the median household income in Brewster?
$57,192 (±$12,452) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brewster?
10.0%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brewster?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brewster work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Massillon (11%, 7 mi), Canton (7%, 14 mi), Jackson Township (4%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brewster walkable?
Brewster is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brewster without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brewster, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brewster
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.