Most of Strum commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
289 jobs are based in Strum for 539 working residents. Jobs and income earn Strum C−; getting around on foot earns it C. Only 6% stay in Strum for work; outside it, Eau Claire is the main destination (18%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Strum: the figures worth knowing
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Strum
On income, poverty and job access, Strum is better than 23% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Strum’s grade up ($68,958, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.4%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (0.6%) is left out: Strum’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, Strum could be anywhere from D to B.
About 28 minutes to work from Strum
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Strum workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 401 commuters (the 15% 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 daily commute in and out of Strum
On a workday 504 residents head out to work, 35 work right here, and 254 people come in from elsewhere.
About 830 people are in Strum on a workday afternoon, 23% 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 Strum’s working residents head each day
Where Strum 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.
The kinds of work in Strum
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Strum, 2013 → 2023: 325 → 289. 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 Strum’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Strum to work
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.
In Strum, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Strum is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.8% across Wisconsin.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 473 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). 2.9% of Strum households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Strum’s commuters take a bus or train.
Strum next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500: 2,440th of 3,771 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,438 | Oran MO | 1,195 | $65K | 15.8% | 7.5% | 5% | C− |
| 2,439 | Gruver TX | 1,064 | $73K | 11.5% | 0.7% | 21% | C− |
| 2,440 | Strum WI | 1,075 | $69K | 17.4% | 0.6% | 6% | C− |
| 2,441 | Moscow Township MI | 1,380 | $59K | 12.3% | 3.0% | 1% | C− |
| 2,442 | Tyler MN | 1,112 | $66K | 10.6% | 4.1% | 18% | 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 Strum, 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 Strum: questions
What is the median household income in Strum?
$68,958 (±$16,964) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Strum?
17.4%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Strum?
28 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Strum work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Eau Claire (18%, 19 mi), Whitehall (11%, 14 mi), Osseo (6%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Strum walkable?
Strum is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Strum without a car?
<1% 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 Strum, from the people who make the trip.
More of Strum
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.