Photo: Doug Kerr · CC BY-SA 2.0Wakeman has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
There are 160 jobs in Wakeman for 432 working residents. The two grades for Wakeman are B for jobs and income and C for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers, where Ohio as a whole has 13%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Wakeman, in brief
Jobs & income in Wakeman: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Wakeman is better than 56% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Wakeman’s grade up (7.9%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($72,396, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
Unemployment (3.1%) is left out: Wakeman’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Wakeman could be anywhere from C− to A.
Commuting from Wakeman: about 28 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wakeman workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 399 commuters (the 5% 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.
Wakeman on a workday afternoon
On a workday 425 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 153 people come in from elsewhere.
About 750 people are in Wakeman on a workday afternoon, 27% fewer 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.
15% of working residents work in Norwalk
Where Wakeman clocks in
15% of workers
5% 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.
The kinds of work in Wakeman
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wakeman, 2013 → 2023: 158 → 160. 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 Wakeman’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Wakeman
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 Wakeman, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Wakeman is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Wakeman 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 420 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). 3.3% of Wakeman households have no vehicle (Ohio 7.5%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wakeman’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Wakeman ranks 852nd of 3,133 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Bratenahl OH | 1,396 | $138K | 4.4% | 0.8% | 1% | A+ |
| 35 | Sharon Center OH | 1,129 | $111K | 0.4% | 0.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Granville South OH | 1,146 | $131K | 4.5% | 0.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 850 | Franklin ID | 1,155 | $82K | 3.6% | 6.2% | 3% | B |
| 851 | Dayton IN | 1,368 | $78K | 12.1% | 2.2% | 1% | B |
| 852 | Wakeman OH | 1,019 | $72K | 7.9% | 3.1% | 2% | B |
| 853 | Shabbona Township IL | 1,331 | $81K | 8.4% | 7.3% | 5% | B |
| 854 | Rome Township PA | 1,027 | $91K | 4.4% | 7.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Wakeman, 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 Wakeman: questions
What is the median household income in Wakeman?
$72,396 (±$17,914) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,389 across Ohio and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wakeman?
7.9%, against 13.3% across Ohio and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wakeman?
28 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Ohio and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wakeman work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Norwalk (15%, 11 mi), Elyria (5%, 18 mi), Townsend Township (4%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wakeman walkable?
Wakeman is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wakeman 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 Wakeman, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wakeman
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.