Photo: Finetooth · CC BY-SA 3.0Jobs, income and commuting in Mill City, OR
Only 7% work in Mill City; the top destination outside it is Salem (19%, 29 miles). Mill City grades D for jobs and income and C− for walkability. At home: 10% of workers have no commute at all (Oregon 19%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Mill City at work: what stands out
Mill City’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Mill City is Salem, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 19% of working residents (145) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Mill City workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 33 minutes each way, against 23 across Oregon. Over a year that’s about 253 hours of commuting, 77 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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 751 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Mill City’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Mill City is better than 14% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Mill City’s grade up ($69,091, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 9% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (8.2%) is left out: Mill City’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, Mill City could be anywhere from D to C.
How far Mill City’s workers travel
About 22% 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.
From Mill City, about 33 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mill City workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 745 commuters (the 10% who work from home are left out). Across Oregon: 80% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who leaves Mill City for work, and who comes in
On a workday 698 residents head out to work, 53 work right here, and 443 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Mill City on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.66 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.
The towns that employ Mill City’s residents
Where Mill City clocks in
19% of workers
6% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
496 jobs are based in Mill City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mill City, 2013 → 2023: 198 → 496. 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 Mill City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Mill City, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mill City is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.4% across Oregon.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 831 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 47% 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). 2.5% of Mill City households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mill City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mill City is 4,386th of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Dunthorpe OR | 1,875 | $250K | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 202 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 245 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,384 | Anderson MO | 2,073 | $54K | 17.7% | 5.3% | 7% | D |
| 4,385 | Rouses Point NY | 2,179 | $46K | 11.9% | 5.3% | 11% | D |
| 4,386 | Mill City OR | 2,125 | $69K | 17.5% | 8.2% | 7% | D |
| 4,387 | Enterprise OR | 2,103 | $58K | 10.2% | 7.1% | 48% | D |
| 4,388 | Greenfield TN | 2,020 | $47K | 13.5% | 2.4% | 13% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | 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 Mill City, the top three, the last and three more from Oregon.
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 Mill City: questions
What is the median household income in Mill City?
$69,091 (±$11,038) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mill City?
17.5%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mill City?
33 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mill City work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salem (19%, 29 mi), Stayton (6%, 16 mi), Portland (5%, 55 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mill City walkable?
Mill City is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mill City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mill City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mill City
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.