Allegan County, Michigan

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 3.8% below the national average, so the nominal median of $83,283 is worth $86,573 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 8.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 15,284 workers (44.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $82,817. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 5,901 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $6.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $82,817 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $25,090, a 3.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 13.52x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 68% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: goods manufacturing. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.
• Attraction whitespace: 5 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.2x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 87.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 13.5% of housing units are vacant, above the Michigan rate of 11.8%, and down from 15.2% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 70.4% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.8% of the vacant stock, or 0.8% of all housing units against the 13.5% 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 $42,221 can pay without cost burden (~$1,056/mo), and 41.1% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 61.8% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Allegan County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Allegan County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 13.52x concentration and 1,038 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Goods manufacturing accounts for 68% of it, with chemical manufacturing the largest single sub-sector at 21.1%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.