Leelanau County, Michigan

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 6.6% below the national average, so the nominal median of $99,422 is worth $106,448 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 16.1 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 56 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 990 workers (23% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $35,634. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,239 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Health Care and Social Assistance averages $77,252 while Retail Trade averages $31,811, a 2.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 22.03x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 15 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.7% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.6x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 91.6% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 38.8% of housing units are vacant, above the Michigan rate of 11.8%, and down from 41.6% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 85.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 4.7% of the vacant stock, or 1.8% of all housing units against the 38.8% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $61,583 can pay without cost burden (~$1,540/mo), and 32.2% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 33.8% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 50.7% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 3.2% between 2019 and 2024, from 10,317 to 9,986.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Leelanau County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Leelanau County shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 22.03x concentration and 278 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 33.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, crop production, and museums, historical sites, and similar, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.7% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.