Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Dorset has higher household incomes than 84% of U.S. towns
Dorset grades C+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. 11.2% of residents are in poverty, next to 10.1% for Vermont as a whole. At home: 29% of workers have no commute at all (Vermont 17%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Dorset: the figures worth knowing
Dorset and Manchester trade workers both ways
Manchester is the top workplace for Dorset residents (24%) and also where the most people who work in Dorset come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A lot of Dorset works from home
29% of Dorset workers work from home, against 17% across Vermont. Time on the road ↓
Dorset makes and builds things
35% of the jobs based in Dorset are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Dorset residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 16%. 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 665 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Dorset: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Dorset is better than 44% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Dorset’s grade up ($111,250, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 8% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.3%) is left out: Dorset’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, Dorset could be anywhere from C− to B.
24% of working residents work in Manchester
Where Dorset clocks in
24% of workers
5% 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.
Time on the road from Dorset: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dorset workers work from home, vs 17% across Vermont. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 670 commuters (the 29% who work from home are left out). Across Vermont: 82% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 35% of the jobs in Dorset
669 jobs are based in Dorset.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dorset, 2013 → 2023: 567 → 669. 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 Dorset’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many people are in Dorset by day
On a workday 549 residents head out to work, 116 work right here, and 553 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 (1.01 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.
Miles to work from Dorset
About 18% 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.
Dorset is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dorset is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.2% across Vermont, on an EPA index of 8.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 947 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 29% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 29% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 45% 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 Dorset households have no vehicle (Vermont 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dorset’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900, Dorset comes 2,644th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 733 | South Hero VT | 1,726 | $127K | 3.5% | 5.9% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 774 | East Montpelier VT | 2,594 | $93K | 2.1% | 2.6% | 16% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 801 | Dummerston VT | 1,859 | $102K | 4.5% | 1.6% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,642 | Mount Vernon ME | 1,843 | $74K | 4.8% | 2.6% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,643 | Root NY | 2,002 | $76K | 6.5% | 1.6% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,644 | Dorset VT | 2,113 | $111K | 11.2% | 4.3% | 17% | C+ |
| 2,645 | Foley MN | 2,650 | $59K | 14.3% | 2.6% | 19% | C+ |
| 2,646 | Greenup Township IL | 2,208 | $58K | 8.3% | 2.3% | 22% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Dorset, the top three, the last and three more from Vermont.
Next door is work for 27% of Dorset
The biggest share goes to Manchester (24%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Dorset workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dorset | – | C+ | A | 22 min | $111,250 |
| Danby | under 2% | C | D | 30 min | $77,321 |
| Mount Tabor | under 2% | — | — | 46 min | — |
| Manchester | 24% | B− | A | 14 min | $94,886 |
| Rupert | 3% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Peru | under 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
| Winhall | under 2% | B− | B− | 27 min | $95,500 |
Same-state neighbors only. Mount Tabor, Rupert and Peru: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Dorset’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Dorset: questions
What is the median household income in Dorset?
$111,250 (±$40,453) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $81,203 across Vermont and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dorset?
11.2%, against 10.1% across Vermont and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dorset?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Vermont and 26 nationally. 29% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dorset work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Manchester (24%, 8 mi), Rutland (5%, 23 mi), Arlington (5%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dorset walkable?
Dorset is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dorset without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 29% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dorset, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dorset
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.