Mason County, Illinois

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $20,545 (24.6%) under the Illinois median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.8%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 18.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 45 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 336 workers (26.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $28,603. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,066 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $634M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $80,412 while Information averages $20,536, a 3.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Support Activities for Agriculture and Forestry concentrates at 11.56x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 28.4% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 1.6x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 81.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.7% of housing units are vacant, above the Illinois rate of 7.7%, and down from 15.3% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 60.8% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 24.7%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 11.5% of the vacant stock, or 1.5% of all housing units against the 12.7% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $35,070 can pay without cost burden (~$877/mo), and 45.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 26.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 54.3% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 16.5% between 2019 and 2024, from 6,795 to 5,674.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Mason County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Mason County shows strong potential for support activities for agriculture and forestry attraction, with a 11.56x concentration and 58 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans support activities for agriculture and forestry, crop production, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 28.4% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.