Every workday, about 14,000 people come to Okemos for work
Most working residents leave Okemos for work: only 12% work in town. The top destinations are Lansing (22%), East Lansing (19%) and Meridian (10%). Half commute less than 7 miles.
What kind of work town is Okemos?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
51% of Okemos works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Lansing (22%). Darker towns draw more of Okemos’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
About 19 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 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Okemos workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Okemos fills up on a workday
On a workday 8,338 residents head out to work, 1,100 work right here, and 13,563 people come in from elsewhere.
About 32,000 people are in Okemos on a workday afternoon, 20% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Where Okemos’s workers come from
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Okemos clocks in
22% of workers
19% of workers
10% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Half of Okemos commutes less than 7 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 22% 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.
What the 14,663 jobs in Okemos are
14,663 jobs are based in Okemos. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Okemos’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Okemos, 2011 → 2021: 14,539 → 14,663. 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.
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 Okemos
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Okemos, 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.