Oakland County, Michigan

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 15.3 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 115,468 workers (19.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $66,340. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 46,986 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $143.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $120,493 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $28,358, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Postal Service concentrates at 2.67x the national norm.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 47.8% of the employment across them, the largest being business and professional services. 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 3.5x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 72.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $59,047 can pay without cost burden (~$1,476/mo), and 42.2% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 66.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 20 institutions in Oakland County award 9,166 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Oakland County shows emerging potential for postal service attraction, with a 2.67x concentration and 99 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans postal service, transportation equipment manufacturing, and machinery manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 47.8% of the employment across them, the largest being business and professional services. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.