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Work & commute in Dollar Bay · A commuter town

95% of Dollar Bay’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Dollar Bay for work: only 5% work in town. The top destinations are Hancock (23%), Houghton (21%) and Portage (7%). Half commute less than 4 miles.

Work in town
5%
19 of 382 working residents
Typical commute
4 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
17 min
Less than MI (24 min)
Work from home
6%
Less than MI (14%)
Jobs based here
168
A commuter town

What kind of work town is Dollar Bay?

Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · The commute map

23% of working residents work in Hancock

A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.

Hancock: 89 residents work here (23%)Houghton: 80 residents work here (21%)Marquette: 18 residents work here (5%)Quincy: 5 residents work here (1%)Adams: 8 residents work here (2%)ChassellFranklin: 25 residents work here (7%)Osceola: 19 residents work here (5%)Portage: 28 residents work here (7%)StantonTorch Lake: 5 residents work here (1%)Calumet: 26 residents work here (7%)Dollar BayHancockHoughtonPortageCalumetFranklinOsceolaDollar Bay
1
Hancock4.5 mi away
23%89
2
Houghton3.3 mi away
21%80
3
Portage12.9 mi away
7%28
4
Calumet9.1 mi away
7%26
5
Franklin2.2 mi away
7%25
6
Osceola4.3 mi away
5%19
7
Marquette65.9 mi away
5%18
8
Adams10 mi away
2%8
9
Quincy4.6 mi away
1%5
10
Torch Lake7.3 mi away
1%5
Everywhere elseother towns and states
21%79
The top trips

Where Dollar Bay clocks in

Lines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.

How far

Half of Dollar Bay commutes less than 4 miles

Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

10 mi25 mi50 mi75 miHancock: 23% · 4.5 miHoughton: 21% · 3.3 miPortage: 7% · 12.9 miCalumet: 7% · 9.1 miFranklin: 7% · 2.2 miOsceola: 5% · 4.3 miMarquette: 5% · 65.9 miAdams: 2% · 10 miQuincy: 1% · 4.6 miTorch Lake: 1% · 7.3 miHancock 23%Houghton 21%Portage 7%Calumet 7%Franklin 7%Dollar Bay
Dollar BayTop destinations (size = commuters)
74%Under 10 mi283 residents
3%10–24 mi12 residents
1%25–50 mi5 residents
21%Over 50 mi82 residents

About 21% 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 2021.

Next door

41% of Dollar Bay works in a bordering town

The biggest share goes to Houghton (21%). Darker towns draw more of Dollar Bay’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.

Time on the road

About 17 minutes each way, quicker than most of Michigan

From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.

A year of commuting
133 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Dollar Bay17 min
Michigan24 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
6%

of Dollar Bay workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.

About 1 in 10
Day and night

Dollar Bay quiets down on a workday

On a workday 363 residents head out to work, 19 work right here, and 149 people come in from elsewhere.

363live here, work elsewhere
19live and work here
149work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night1,000
Workday840
1,000live here− 360head out to work+ 150come in to work= 840on a workday

About 840 people are in Dollar Bay on a workday afternoon, 20% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.44jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

0.44 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.

Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2021, primary jobs.

The jobs

Dollar Bay makes things: 53% of its jobs are in goods

168 jobs are based in Dollar Bay. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Dollar Bay’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Dollar BayJobs Dollar Bay residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms53%18%
Trade, transport & utilities11%20%
Services: health, schools, offices36%62%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less29%24%
$1,251–$3,333 a month33%29%
Over $3,333 a month38%47%

Who does it

29 or younger34%28%
30 to 5446%51%
55 and older20%21%
+331%

Jobs based in Dollar Bay, 2011 → 2021: 39 → 168. 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 2021.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Every worker, home to work. The Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.
  • Where the employer says. A job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.
  • Two surveys. Flows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2021. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: the Census American Community Survey.
  • Straight lines. Distances are as the crow flies between home and work. Roads, rivers and traffic make the real trip longer.
Beyond the commute

More of Dollar Bay

Dollar Bay home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Dollar Bay, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
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Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, 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.

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