Photo: Doug Kerr · CC BY-SA 2.0Chetek has lower household incomes than 67% of U.S. towns
5% of workers work from home; Wisconsin has 13%. 13.2% of residents are in poverty; Wisconsin has 10.6%. Chetek grades C+ for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Chetek
Chetek trades workers with the towns around it
Chetek has about as many jobs (1,177) as working residents (1,063), but they are mostly different people: 927 residents leave for work each day while 1,041 people come in. Only 12% of the jobs in Chetek are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Chetek workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 28 minutes each way, against 22 across Wisconsin. Over a year that’s about 215 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Chetek makes and builds things
37% of the jobs based in Chetek are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Chetek residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 26%. 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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Chetek
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Chetek is better than 35% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Chetek’s grade up (3.7%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($64,141, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Chetek could be anywhere from C− to B.
Who works in Chetek, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 927 residents head out to work, 136 work right here, and 1,041 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 (1.11 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.
Time on the road from Chetek: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chetek workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,057 commuters (the 5% 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.
In Chetek, 37% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
1,177 jobs are based in Chetek.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chetek, 2013 → 2023: 1,185 → 1,177. 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 Chetek’s own residents hold wherever they work.
14% of working residents work in Rice Lake
Where Chetek clocks in
7% 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.
The commute from Chetek, by distance
About 28% 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.
Chetek is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Chetek is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Chetek near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,111 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). 6.4% of Chetek households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Chetek’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Chetek ranks: 3,104th of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 36 | North Prairie WI | 2,193 | $153K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Vandenbroek WI | 1,701 | $129K | 1.6% | 5.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,102 | Mount Holly Springs PA | 2,019 | $65K | 14.0% | 5.8% | 3% | C+ |
| 3,103 | Westmoreland TN | 2,879 | $59K | 13.9% | 3.4% | 3% | C+ |
| 3,104 | Chetek WI | 2,152 | $64K | 13.2% | 3.7% | 13% | C+ |
| 3,105 | Jefferson Township IN | 2,389 | $74K | 6.5% | 8.4% | 2% | C+ |
| 3,106 | Oak Lawn Township MN | 1,886 | $85K | 13.5% | 3.7% | 3% | 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 Chetek, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Around Chetek: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Prairie Lake (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Chetek workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chetek | – | C+ | A− | 28 min | $64,141 |
| Prairie Lake | 2% | C+ | D | 25 min | $71,250 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Chetek’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 Chetek: questions
What is the median household income in Chetek?
$64,141 (±$7,924) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chetek?
13.2%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chetek?
28 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chetek work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rice Lake (14%, 12 mi), Eau Claire (9%, 35 mi), Barron (7%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chetek walkable?
Chetek is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.8 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chetek without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Chetek, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chetek
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.