Photo: publichall · CC BY-SA 3.0Salem at work: jobs, income and the commute
A typical one-way commute from Salem lasts 23 minutes (South Dakota 18, U.S. 26). For jobs and income Salem is better than 50% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (A−). About one in seven stay in Salem for work; outside it, Sioux Falls is the main destination (29%, 35 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Salem stands out on work
29% of Salem works in Sioux Falls
178 working residents, 29%, have their main job in Sioux Falls, 35 miles away. That’s more than work in Salem itself. The commute map ↓
Salem workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 23 minutes each way, against 18 across South Dakota. Over a year that’s about 176 hours of commuting, 38 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 608 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Salem’s Jobs & income grade comes from
The poverty rate holds Salem’s grade up (5.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Salem’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, Salem could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The towns that employ Salem’s residents
Where Salem clocks in
Lines 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 Salem, about 23 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Salem workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 568 commuters (the 7% 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.
Salem by day and by night
On a workday 507 residents head out to work, 101 work right here, and 328 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Salem on a workday afternoon, 13% fewer than live here.
0.71 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 kinds of work in Salem
429 jobs are based in Salem.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Salem, 2013 → 2023: 478 → 429. 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 Salem’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Salem, by distance
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.
Salem is easy on foot, hard by bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 611 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). 2.7% of Salem households have no vehicle (South Dakota 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Salem’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Salem ranks: 1,856th of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 154 | Wall Lake Township SD | 1,210 | $129K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 196 | Jefferson Township SD | 1,207 | $196K | 2.0% | 3.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 200 | Crooks SD | 1,415 | $99K | 0.5% | 1.4% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,854 | Scandinavia WI | 1,015 | $90K | 8.3% | 4.1% | 1% | B− |
| 1,855 | Helena West Side MT | 1,417 | $67K | 5.9% | 0.3% | 8% | B− |
| 1,856 | Salem SD | 1,357 | $75K | 5.6% | 0.8% | 17% | B− |
| 1,857 | York Township IN | 1,538 | $81K | 11.6% | 1.8% | <1% | B− |
| 1,858 | Lodi Township OH | 1,356 | $90K | 6.5% | 0.8% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Salem, 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 Salem: questions
What is the median household income in Salem?
$74,881 (±$23,758) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Salem?
5.6%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Salem?
23 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Salem work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sioux Falls (29%, 35 mi), Mitchell (5%, 33 mi), Montrose (4%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Salem walkable?
Salem is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Salem 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 Salem, from the people who make the trip.
More of Salem
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.