Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Clear Lake top those of 62% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Clear Lake; the top destination outside it is Watertown (15%, 25 miles). Below the poverty line: 9.8% of residents (South Dakota 11.9%). Jobs and income earn Clear Lake C+; getting around on foot earns it A−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Clear Lake
Clear Lake’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Clear Lake is Watertown, 25 miles away as the crow flies. 15% of working residents (94) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Clear Lake makes and builds things
37% of the jobs based in Clear Lake are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Clear Lake residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. 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 607 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Clear Lake earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Clear Lake is better than 38% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Clear Lake’s grade up ($84,792, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 12% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Clear Lake’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, Clear Lake could be anywhere from D to B.
How far Clear Lake’s workers travel
About 30% 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.
Goods jobs make up 37% of work in Clear Lake
657 jobs are based in Clear Lake.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clear Lake, 2013 → 2023: 509 → 657. 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 Clear Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Clear Lake on a workday afternoon
On a workday 436 residents head out to work, 171 work right here, and 486 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 (1.08 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.
Commuting out of Clear Lake: the destinations
Where Clear Lake clocks in
15% 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.
From Clear Lake, about 20 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clear Lake workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 585 commuters (the 2% who work from home are left out). Across South Dakota: 85% 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.
In Clear Lake, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Clear Lake is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Clear Lake 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 599 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 Clear Lake households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Clear Lake’s commuters take a bus or train.
Clear Lake is 2,018th of 4,312 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,600 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 122 | Wall Lake Township SD | 1,210 | $129K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 149 | Jefferson Township SD | 1,207 | $196K | 2.0% | 3.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 152 | Crooks SD | 1,415 | $99K | 0.5% | 1.4% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,016 | Buffalo IA | 1,146 | $70K | 18.8% | 2.1% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,017 | Worthington KY | 1,447 | $66K | 12.0% | 3.0% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,018 | Clear Lake SD | 1,220 | $85K | 9.8% | 3.8% | 28% | C+ |
| 2,019 | Southeast Township IN | 1,515 | $96K | 4.0% | 3.1% | <1% | C+ |
| 2,020 | Bradford ME | 1,247 | $83K | 9.0% | 2.7% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Clear Lake, the top three, the last and three more from South Dakota.
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 Clear Lake: questions
What is the median household income in Clear Lake?
$84,792 (±$23,854) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clear Lake?
9.8%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clear Lake?
20 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clear Lake work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Watertown (15%, 25 mi), Sioux Falls (14%, 84 mi), Brookings (5%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Clear Lake walkable?
Clear Lake is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clear Lake 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 Clear Lake, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clear Lake
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.