Wisconsin Concrete Park · Photo: Sculpture created by Fred Smith. Copyright held by Friends of Fred Smith, Inc. · CC BY-SA 3.0Worcester has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
308 jobs are based in Worcester, against 655 working residents. Jobs and income earn Worcester C; getting around on foot earns it D. 5% of workers work from home (Wisconsin 13%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Worcester: the gist
Worcester and Phillips trade workers both ways
Phillips is the top workplace for Worcester residents (30%) and also where the most people who work in Worcester come from (14% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Worcester makes and builds things
57% of the jobs based in Worcester are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Worcester residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 38%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 655 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Worcester
On income, poverty and job access, Worcester is better than 30% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Worcester’s grade up (7.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.5%) is left out: Worcester’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, Worcester could be anywhere from C− to B−.
30% of working residents work in Phillips
Where Worcester clocks in
8% 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 Worcester, 57% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Worcester, 2013 → 2023: 221 → 308. 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 Worcester’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Worcester
About 31% 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.
Who commutes out of Worcester, and who commutes in
On a workday 626 residents head out to work, 29 work right here, and 279 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Worcester on a workday afternoon, 22% 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.
Commuting from Worcester: about 19 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Worcester workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 648 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.
For most of Worcester, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Worcester is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Worcester 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 681 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). 0.8% of Worcester households have no vehicle (Wisconsin 6.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Worcester’s commuters take a bus or train.
Worcester is 3,347th of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Nashotah WI | 1,298 | $148K | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Maple Bluff WI | 1,305 | $199K | 3.0% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 47 | Wind Point WI | 1,620 | $143K | 0.4% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,345 | Penn Township PA | 1,194 | $70K | 8.3% | 4.9% | 8% | C |
| 3,346 | Danby VT | 1,273 | $77K | 9.4% | 2.3% | 7% | C |
| 3,347 | Worcester WI | 1,546 | $68K | 7.0% | 2.5% | 4% | C |
| 3,348 | Brazeau WI | 1,381 | $73K | 8.6% | 6.7% | 1% | C |
| 3,349 | Bonner-West Riverside MT | 1,563 | $62K | 14.5% | 0.0% | 4% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Worcester, the top three, the last and three more from Wisconsin.
Next door is work for 30% of Worcester
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Worcester workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worcester | – | C | D | 19 min | $68,438 |
| Phillips | 30% | D− | A− | 21 min | $47,059 |
| Emery | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Hackett | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Elk | under 2% | — | — | 19 min | — |
| Fifield | under 2% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Flambeau | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Emery, Hackett, Elk, Fifield and Flambeau: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Phillips. Darker towns draw more of Worcester’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 Worcester: questions
What is the median household income in Worcester?
$68,438 (±$11,842) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,485 across Wisconsin and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Worcester?
7.0%, against 10.6% across Wisconsin and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Worcester?
19 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Wisconsin and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Worcester work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Phillips (30%, 6 mi), Park Falls (8%, 15 mi), Prentice (4%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Worcester walkable?
Worcester is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Worcester without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Worcester, from the people who make the trip.
More of Worcester
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.