97% of Whitmore Lake’s working residents leave town for work
Most working residents leave Whitmore Lake for work: only 3% work in town. The top destinations are Ann Arbor (18%), Northfield (4%) and Livonia (4%). Half commute less than 15 miles.
What kind of work town is Whitmore Lake?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
18% of working residents work in Ann Arbor
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Whitmore Lake clocks in
18% of workers
4% of workers
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 763 jobs in Whitmore Lake are
763 jobs are based in Whitmore Lake. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Whitmore Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Whitmore Lake, 2011 → 2021: 424 → 763. 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.
Whitmore Lake quiets down on a workday
On a workday 3,359 residents head out to work, 108 work right here, and 655 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,200 people are in Whitmore Lake on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than live here.
0.22 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.
Half of Whitmore Lake commutes less than 15 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 29 minutes each way, longer than most of Michigan
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Whitmore Lake workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Whitmore Lake and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Northfield (4%). Darker towns draw more of Whitmore Lake’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
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 Whitmore Lake
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Whitmore Lake, 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.