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Work & commute in Turtle Lake · Balanced

97% of Turtle Lake’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Turtle Lake for work: only 3% work in town. The top destinations are Barron (11%), Rice Lake (9%) and Turtle Lake (6%). Half commute less than 20 miles.

Work in town
3%
10 of 305 working residents
Typical commute
20 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
21 min
Less than WI (22 min)
Work from home
5%
Less than WI (13%)
Jobs based here
274
Balanced

What kind of work town is Turtle Lake?

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

★ What stands out · The jobs

Turtle Lake makes things: 84% of its jobs are in goods

274 jobs are based in Turtle Lake. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Turtle Lake’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Turtle LakeJobs Turtle Lake residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms84%33%
Trade, transport & utilities3%20%
Services: health, schools, offices14%48%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less8%17%
$1,251–$3,333 a month11%25%
Over $3,333 a month81%58%

Who does it

29 or younger18%24%
30 to 5455%50%
55 and older26%25%
+123%

Jobs based in Turtle Lake, 2013 → 2023: 123 → 274. 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 2023.

Day and night

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 295 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 264 people come in from elsewhere.

295live here, work elsewhere
10live and work here
264work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night800
Workday770
800live here− 300head out to work+ 260come in to work= 770on a workday

About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.90jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

About as many jobs as working residents (0.90 per resident).

Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.

The commute map

11% of working residents work in Barron

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

Prairie Farm: 16 residents work here (5%)Clear Lake: 8 residents work here (3%)Barron: 33 residents work here (11%)Turtle Lake: 19 residents work here (6%)Amery: 8 residents work here (3%)ClaytonCumberland: 7 residents work here (2%)Rice Lake: 28 residents work here (9%)Menomonie: 17 residents work here (6%)Eau Claire: 16 residents work here (5%)Turtle LakeCumberlandAlmenaArlandVance CreekClintonMaple GroveClaytonBarronRice LakeTurtle LakeMenomoniePrairie FarmEau ClaireTurtle Lake
1
Barron13.5 mi away
11%33
2
Rice Lake20.5 mi away
9%28
3
Turtle Lake4.7 mi away
6%19
4
Menomonie32 mi away
6%17
5
Prairie Farm8.9 mi away
5%16
6
Eau Claire46.3 mi away
5%16
7
Turtle Lake (in town)right here
3%10
8
Clear Lake9.8 mi away
3%8
9
Amery12.7 mi away
3%8
10
Cumberland14.7 mi away
2%7
Everywhere elseother towns and states
47%143
The top trips

Where Turtle Lake 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 Turtle Lake commutes less than 20 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 mi55 miBarron: 11% · 13.5 miRice Lake: 9% · 20.5 miTurtle Lake: 6% · 4.7 miMenomonie: 6% · 32 miPrairie Farm: 5% · 8.9 miEau Claire: 5% · 46.3 miClear Lake: 3% · 9.8 miAmery: 3% · 12.7 miCumberland: 2% · 14.7 miBarron 11%Rice Lake 9%Turtle Lake 6%Menomonie 6%Prairie Farm 5%Turtle Lake
Turtle LakeTop destinations (size = commuters)
15%Under 10 mi46 residents
42%10–24 mi127 residents
24%25–50 mi73 residents
19%Over 50 mi59 residents

About 19% 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 2023.

Time on the road

About 21 minutes each way, about the WI average

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

A year of commuting
159 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Turtle Lake21 min
Wisconsin22 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
5%

of Turtle Lake workers work from home, vs 13% across Wisconsin. Their commute is the hallway.

About 1 in 10
Next door

Turtle Lake and the towns next door

Darker towns draw more of Turtle Lake’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.

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 2023. 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 Turtle Lake

Turtle Lake home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Turtle Lake, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Weigh in
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Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, 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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