Mackinac 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 $8,966 (12.3%) 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 $63,909 is worth $66,433 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.1%, 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 10.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 53 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 1,566 workers (46% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $44,814. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,000 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $693M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Health Care and Social Assistance averages $67,520 while Other Services (except Public Administration) averages $30,381, a 2.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Accommodation concentrates at 16.64x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 76.7% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: visitor economy. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.7x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 77.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 50.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Michigan rate of 11.8%, and down from 52.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 86.3% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 3.9% of the vacant stock, or 2% of all housing units against the 50.9% 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 $40,000 can pay without cost burden (~$1,000/mo), and 27.1% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 30.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 51.4% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 3.1% between 2019 and 2024, from 5,048 to 4,892.

Mackinac County shows strong potential for accommodation attraction, with a 16.64x concentration and 921 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 30.3% 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. Visitor economy accounts for 76.7% of it, with accommodation the largest single sub-sector at 45.1%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.