With 0.6 jobs for every working resident, most of Cataract works elsewhere
Hardly any work in Cataract itself; outside it, Sparta draws the most (23%, 10 miles). Employers in Cataract report 54 jobs, against 95 working residents. Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, where Wisconsin as a whole has 13%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cataract by day and by night
On a workday 95 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 54 people come in from elsewhere.
About 97 people are in Cataract on a workday afternoon, 30% fewer than live here.
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 places Cataract commutes to
Where Cataract clocks in
23% of workers
7% 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.
In Cataract, services account for most jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cataract, 2013 → 2023: 22 → 54. 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 Cataract’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Cataract’s commute takes 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 Cataract workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 83 commuters (the 6% 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.
The distance from Cataract to work
About 36% 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.
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 Cataract: questions
What is the median household income in Cataract?
$51,964 (±$43,193) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cataract?
9.2%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cataract?
21 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cataract work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sparta (23%, 10 mi), La Crosse (7%, 26 mi), Tomah (4%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Cataract without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cataract, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cataract
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.