Van Buren County, Michigan

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.3%, the rate is in distressed-county territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 12.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 3,524 workers (22.5% of the top displayed sectors), at an average wage of $63,637.
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $76,053 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,925, a 3.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 14.07x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 80.6% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 18.1% vacancy rate; potential opportunity for redevelopment or repositioning.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,703/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 25.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Strong participation: 81.6% labor force participation among working-age residents indicates an engaged, available workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 6 local institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 35,780 annual credentials.

Van Buren County shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 14.07x concentration and 655 jobs in this sub-sector, it ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.1% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, crop production, and plastics and rubber products manufacturing creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.

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