Isabella County, Michigan

• 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 $17,638 (24.2%) under the Michigan median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 3.8% below the national average, so the nominal median of $55,237 is worth $57,419 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 21.9%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Young population: Median age of 30 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 3,145 workers (19.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $43,048. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 8,088 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $70,988 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $16,828, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Machinery Manufacturing concentrates at 7.90x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 14 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 25.8% 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.
• Attraction whitespace: 4 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 3.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 13.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Michigan rate of 11.8%, and down from 15.1% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 65.4% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 12.2% of the vacant stock, or 1.6% of all housing units against the 13.1% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $33,839 can pay without cost burden (~$846/mo), and 48.3% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 26.5% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Healthy participation: 62.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 19.6-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 4 institutions in Isabella County award 5,024 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Isabella County shows strong potential for machinery manufacturing attraction, with a 7.90x concentration and 1,224 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans machinery manufacturing, support activities for mining, and truck transportation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 25.8% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.