Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0Amherst’s household incomes are lower than in 66% of U.S. towns
Only 6% stay in Amherst for work; outside it, Stevens Point is the main destination (25%, 14 miles). Poverty touches 6.6% of residents; Wisconsin has 10.6%. For jobs and income Amherst is better than 41% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Amherst
Income, poverty and work: Amherst’s grade explained
The poverty rate holds Amherst’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Amherst’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, Amherst could be anywhere from C− to B.
31% of the jobs in Amherst make or build things
667 jobs are based in Amherst.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Amherst, 2013 → 2023: 470 → 667. 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 Amherst’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Amherst on a workday
On a workday 514 residents head out to work, 34 work right here, and 633 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Amherst on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.22 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.
Where people from Amherst work
Where Amherst clocks in
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.
Time on the road from Amherst: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Amherst workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 496 commuters (the 17% who work from home are left out). Across Wisconsin: 86% 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.
How far Amherst’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.
Most trips from Amherst start in a car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 601 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). 2.6% of Amherst households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Amherst’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Amherst is 1,597th among 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Big Bend WI | 1,498 | $135K | 3.2% | 0.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,595 | Lakewood Club MI | 1,345 | $72K | 11.4% | 2.1% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,596 | Southmayd TX | 1,110 | $86K | 16.8% | 0.3% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,597 | Amherst WI | 1,119 | $65K | 6.6% | 0.8% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,598 | Parker Township KS | 1,055 | $93K | 9.7% | 0.0% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,599 | Porter Township MI | 1,269 | $76K | 7.9% | 3.9% | 0% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Amherst, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
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 Amherst: questions
What is the median household income in Amherst?
$64,922 (±$18,143) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Amherst?
6.6%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Amherst?
21 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Amherst work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stevens Point (25%, 14 mi), Plover (8%, 13 mi), Waupaca (4%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Amherst walkable?
Amherst is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Amherst 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 Amherst, from the people who make the trip.
More of Amherst
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.