TownTapestry
Sign inJoin
IthacaGood night
Work & commute · Ithaca

Work & commute in Ithaca, MI

Most working residents leave Ithaca for work: only 19% work in town. The top destinations are Alma (10%), St. Louis (7%) and Mount Pleasant (4%). Half commute less than 18 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2021 Census ACS commute times
Work in town
19%
205 of 1,072 working residents
Typical commute
18 mi
Half commute less than this, straight-line
Average commute time
24 min
One way, from the Census survey
Work from home
1%
of workers, from the Census survey
Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 867 Ithaca residents head out of town to work, 205 work right here, and 1,485 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Ithaca.

867live here, work elsewhere
205live and work here
1,485work here, live elsewhere
Leave for workStayCome in
The map

Where Ithaca goes to work

St. LouisSt. JohnsIthacaAlmaMount PleasantLansingWheelerNorth StarSevilleEmersonFultonNewarkChippewaPine RiverChesaningArcadaAlmaSt. LouisMount PleasantPine RiverSt. JohnsLansingNewarkChesaningChippewaIthaca
1
Ithaca (in town)right here
19%205
2
Alma7 mi away
10%112
3
St. Louis8.2 mi away
7%79
4
Mount Pleasant23 mi away
4%43
5
Pine River10 mi away
3%29
6
St. Johns20.2 mi away
2%26
7
Lansing39.9 mi away
2%22
8
Newark4.7 mi away
2%22
9
Chesaning25.9 mi away
2%22
10
Chippewa20.9 mi away
2%19
Everywhere elseother towns and states
46%493

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far Ithaca commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

45%Under 10 mi
17%10–24 mi
17%25–50 mi
21%Over 50 mi
Job hub or commuter town?

Ithaca is a job hub

1.58jobs per working resident
A job hub

1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.

The jobs

What the jobs in Ithaca are

1,690 jobs are based in Ithaca. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Ithaca’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Ithaca

1,690 jobs
Goods (factories, building, farms)18%
Trade, transport & utilities20%
Services (health, schools, offices…)62%
$1,250 a month or less11%
$1,251–$3,333 a month37%
Over $3,333 a month52%

Jobs Ithaca residents hold

1,072 working residents
Goods (factories, building, farms)22%
Trade, transport & utilities18%
Services (health, schools, offices…)61%
$1,250 a month or less16%
$1,251–$3,333 a month32%
Over $3,333 a month51%
−18%

Jobs based in Ithaca, 2011 → 2021: 2,067 → 1,690. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe 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 saysA 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 surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2021. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

We left the porch light on

Where to, neighbor?

You’re in Ithaca, MIView boundary

Nearby

All towns & citiesExplore the map

Local begins with a boundary.

See what belongs to your selected town.

Loading boundary…

Ithaca is your selected town. The feed includes posts assigned to this town, not a distance radius or ZIP code.

Neighborhoods narrow the feed further, while townwide announcements, events, and issues remain visible.

Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/18 · 2025-01-01
Open detailed map