Gillette City Hall (1936) · Photo: Mr. Satterly · CC0Work and commuting in Gillette
At 19 minutes each way, commutes from Gillette run about the Wyoming average. The two grades for Gillette are C+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. More than half work in Gillette; the top destination outside it is Casper (3%, 107 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Gillette stands out on work
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Gillette
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Gillette is better than 45% of U.S. towns, #10 of 28 in Wyoming. Household income holds Gillette’s grade up ($81,316, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gillette could be anywhere from C to B.
In and out of Gillette on a workday
On a workday 7,335 residents head out to work, 9,098 work right here, and 6,609 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 (0.96 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.
Where Gillette goes to work
Where Gillette clocks in
2% of workers
2% 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 15,707 jobs based in Gillette
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gillette, 2013 → 2023: 18,304 → 15,707. 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 Gillette’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Gillette takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gillette workers work from home, vs 9% across Wyoming. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 15,352 commuters (the 4% 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.
Miles to work from Gillette
About 20% 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 Gillette, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gillette is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns, #18 of 28 in Wyoming. Both inputs place Gillette 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 15,947 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). 4.2% of Gillette households have no vehicle (Wyoming 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Gillette’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Gillette is 930th among 1,255 U.S. towns of 24,000 to 46,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 912 | Laramie WY | 32,284 | $56K | 22.5% | 4.0% | 67% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 928 | Riverbank CA | 26,557 | $88K | 12.8% | 8.6% | 6% | C+ |
| 929 | Fond du Lac WI | 44,541 | $62K | 12.4% | 4.4% | 44% | C+ |
| 930 | Gillette WY | 34,024 | $81K | 9.8% | 4.6% | 55% | C+ |
| 931 | Oak Park MI | 29,072 | $72K | 12.0% | 10.8% | 3% | C+ |
| 932 | Port St. John FL | 25,120 | $88K | 9.9% | 6.3% | 3% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,255 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Gillette, the top three, the last and three more from Wyoming.
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 Gillette: questions
What is the median household income in Gillette?
$81,316 (±$6,973) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,176 across Wyoming and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gillette?
9.8%, against 10.5% across Wyoming and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gillette?
19 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Wyoming and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gillette work?
55% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Casper (3%, 107 mi), Cheyenne (2%, 220 mi), Sheridan (2%, 81 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gillette walkable?
Gillette is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gillette without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gillette, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gillette
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.