Hale has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
Employers in Hale report 60 jobs for 531 working residents. Hale grades B for jobs and income and C for walkability. Hardly any work in Hale; the top destination outside it is Osseo (19%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Hale: the figures worth knowing
Hale is a place people come home to
There are 60 jobs based in Hale, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Hale has about 610 people in it, 44% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Hale and Osseo trade workers both ways
Osseo is the top workplace for Hale residents (19%) and also where the most people who work in Hale come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Hale workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 31 minutes each way, against 22 across Wisconsin. Over a year that’s about 238 hours of commuting, 69 more than the state’s typical worker. 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 531 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Hale: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Hale is better than 58% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Hale’s grade up ($92,083, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (3.8%) is left out: Hale’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Hale could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Hale by day and by night
On a workday 527 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 56 people come in from elsewhere.
About 610 people are in Hale on a workday afternoon, 44% 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.
Where Hale goes to work
Where Hale clocks in
Lines 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 to work from Hale takes about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hale workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 400 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.
28% of the jobs in Hale make or build things
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hale, 2013 → 2023: 48 → 60. 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 Hale’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Hale goes to work
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.
In Hale, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hale is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.8% across Wisconsin, on an EPA index of 3.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 484 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). 2.7% of Hale households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hale’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Hale is 992nd of 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 990 | Ridott Township IL | 1,307 | $83K | 8.6% | 2.4% | 4% | B |
| 991 | La Valle WI | 1,443 | $86K | 4.7% | 0.7% | 2% | B |
| 992 | Hale WI | 1,081 | $92K | 7.0% | 3.8% | 1% | B |
| 993 | Madison Township IN | 1,203 | $73K | 6.4% | 2.2% | 6% | B |
| 994 | Tippecanoe Township IN | 1,020 | $96K | 4.9% | 1.3% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Hale, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Around Hale: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hale workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hale | – | B | C | 31 min | $92,083 |
| Pigeon | under 2% | C− | C | 21 min | $69,844 |
| Sumner | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Northfield | under 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
| Chimney Rock | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Lincoln | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Garfield | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Unity | under 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
| Burnside | under 2% | — | — | 26 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Sumner, Northfield, Chimney Rock, Unity and Burnside: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Lincoln and Garfield: the same communities as the places of those names, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Hale’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 Hale: questions
What is the median household income in Hale?
$92,083 (±$10,735) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hale?
7.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hale?
31 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hale work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Osseo (19%, 9 mi), Whitehall (12%, 8 mi), Eau Claire (11%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hale walkable?
Hale is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 3.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hale 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 Hale, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hale
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.