93% of Jenison’s working residents leave town for work
Most working residents leave Jenison for work: only 7% work in town. The top destinations are Grand Rapids (18%), Georgetown Township (10%) and Wyoming (9%). Half commute less than 10 miles.
Work and commuting in Jenison, in brief
Jenison trades workers with the towns around it
Jenison has about as many jobs (6,292) as working residents (7,363), but they are mostly different people: 6,855 residents leave for work each day while 5,784 people come in. Only 8% of the jobs in Jenison are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Jenison has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Jenison went from 4,593 in 2011 to 6,292 in 2021, +37%. The jobs ↓
Young people hold many of the jobs here
33% of the jobs based in Jenison are held by workers 29 or younger, against 24% of Jenison’s own working residents. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2021, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; 2021 is the newest year Michigan has published; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 6,855 residents head out to work, 508 work right here, and 5,784 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 (0.85 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2021, primary jobs.
What the 6,292 jobs in Jenison are
6,292 jobs are based in Jenison. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Jenison’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jenison, 2011 → 2021: 4,593 → 6,292. 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.
18% of working residents work in Grand Rapids
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Jenison clocks in
10% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Half of Jenison commutes less than 10 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2021.
About 20 minutes each way, quicker than most of Michigan
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Jenison workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
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.
More of Jenison
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Jenison, from the people who make the trip.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
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.