Photo: No machine-readable author provided. C.Maylett assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0Earning a living in Gunnison
Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers, next to 18% for Utah as a whole. The two grades for Gunnison are D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in four work in Gunnison; the top destination outside it is Centerfield (6%, 2 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Gunnison, in brief
A big share show a job far from home
44% 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 ↓
Gunnison has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Gunnison went from 874 in 2013 to 1,351 in 2023, +55%. The jobs ↓
Few Gunnison workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 18% across Utah. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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 922 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Inside Gunnison’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Gunnison is better than 11% of U.S. towns, #116 of 119 in Utah. Household income holds Gunnison’s grade up ($70,833, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 5% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.1%) is left out: Gunnison’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, Gunnison could be anywhere from D− to C.
How far Gunnison goes to work
About 44% 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.
Inside Gunnison’s 1,351 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gunnison, 2013 → 2023: 874 → 1,351. 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 Gunnison’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 16 minutes from Gunnison
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gunnison workers work from home, vs 18% across Utah. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 801 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Utah: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who works in Gunnison, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 690 residents head out to work, 232 work right here, and 1,119 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,100 people are in Gunnison on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.47 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.
The towns that employ Gunnison’s residents
Where Gunnison clocks in
6% of workers
6% 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.
Getting around Gunnison: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gunnison is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns, #58 of 119 in Utah. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Utah, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 828 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). 2.4% of Gunnison households have no vehicle (Utah 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gunnison’s commuters take a bus or train.
Gunnison and other U.S. towns of 2,600 to 5,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | Lake Point UT | 2,947 | $137K | 2.0% | 1.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 301 | Mountain Green UT | 3,976 | $150K | 0.9% | 1.7% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 430 | Wellsville UT | 4,303 | $104K | 3.1% | 1.0% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,892 | Perkins OK | 3,271 | $35K | 32.0% | 4.2% | 11% | D |
| 3,893 | California PA | 4,615 | $49K | 28.9% | 10.8% | 11% | D |
| 3,894 | Gunnison UT | 3,693 | $71K | 20.9% | 4.1% | 25% | D |
| 3,895 | Granger WA | 3,831 | $66K | 23.3% | 15.8% | 6% | D |
| 3,896 | Clare MI | 3,318 | $41K | 18.9% | 6.7% | 17% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,318 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Gunnison, the top three, the last and three more from Utah.
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 Gunnison: questions
What is the median household income in Gunnison?
$70,833 (±$11,077) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,166 across Utah and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gunnison?
20.9%, against 8.5% across Utah and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gunnison?
16 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Utah and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gunnison work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Centerfield (6%, 2 mi), Salt Lake City (6%, 112 mi), Salina (4%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gunnison walkable?
Gunnison is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gunnison 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 Gunnison, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gunnison
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.