Leigh Lake Ranger Patrol Cabin · Photo: National Park Service inventory · Public domainAlta has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
50% of workers have no commute at all, next to 9% for Wyoming as a whole. Alta has 98 jobs, and 198 of its residents work somewhere. Only 2% work in Alta; the top destination outside it is Jackson (33%, 24 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The workday shuffle in and out of Alta
On a workday 194 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 94 people come in from elsewhere.
About 370 people are in Alta on a workday afternoon, 21% 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 people from Alta work
Where Alta clocks in
33% 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 kinds of work in Alta
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Alta, 2013 → 2023: 32 → 98. 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 Alta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Working from home in Alta
of Alta workers work from home, vs 9% across Wyoming. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 140 commuters (the 50% who work from home are left out). Across Wyoming: 83% 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 commute from Alta, by distance
About 18% 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 Alta: questions
What is the poverty rate in Alta?
5.3%, against 10.5% across Wyoming and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in Alta work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (33%, 24 mi), Teton Village (15%, 16 mi), Driggs (5%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Alta 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 Alta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Alta
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.