Mt. Pleasant’s City Commission adopted new economic goals for the city and released economic data about the surrounding area.
At the latest City Commission meeting, city officials went through a presentation from City Manager Aaron Desentz touching on a set of goals put together by city staff. These objectives change based on community interest as well as the completion rate of previously set targets.
The commission unanimously accepted the goals as presented, which are as follows:
Support existing businesses with resources and incentives
Use Administrative pre-application meetings with staff for businesses looking to expand.
Strengthen relationships with local business owners
Entrepreneurship and small business development
Downtown revitalization and place making
Talent attraction and workforce development
Tourism and outdoor recreation economy
During the presentation from Desentz, he explained a few ways to accomplish some of the goals. Going forward, the commission plans to use the Tax Increment Finance Authority programs to provide businesses with funding for improvements as well as housing development. They also plan to collaborate with Union Township to encourage higher density development, support local employers in creating internship-to-employment pipelines and student-friendly job postings, expand and enhance parks and trailways, as some examples.
These goals are meant to help drive the economy of the city forward and address some of the issues with employment and talent retention.
As of 2025, Isabella County’s unemployment rate was 6.2%, a number that’s been steadily climbing since 2023. The county also has a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the state, which sat at 5.8% in 2025. Over 14,000 people are employed at jobs within the Mt. Pleasant city limits, a number that’s gone down since 2024, and the vast majority of those employed commute from outside the city. Said commuters also earn more than $40,000 on average, whereas a third of the people who live within the city limits are below the poverty line, according to 2024 data.
Currently, the top industries in Mt. Pleasant are: retail trade with 10.4% of the city’s workforce, educational services with 25.8% of the workforce, healthcare and social assistance makes up 18.1%, accommodation and food services makes up 12.5%, and public administration makes up 5.5%.
A majority of people, 51.8%, within Mt. Pleasant’s city limits are college educated. According to the data released by the city, this should drive up the average income of citizens. However, a large portion of jobs within the area pay below what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) calculates as a livable wage.
Almost 80% of the city’s population is unmarried. With one adult, MIT’s calculator for a livable wage is around $22 an hour, or about $45,760 a year, going up about $10 an hour for every child added on. The average salary for a teacher, fresh out of college, is about $41,900, according to Michigan State University. For those working in retail it’s approximately $30,000 a year, and for food service it’s about $29,000 a year. Some of this data is why Desentz pushed for the talent retention aspect of the city’s economic goals.
“…we have talented, young individuals who are graduating with a degree, who have the job skills that are out there and are trying to understand where they’re going and where the jobs are at,” Desentz said during his presentation. “We’re seeing how we can develop those opportunities here in Mt. Pleasant and keep those individuals here.”
The aforementioned internship-to-employment pipelines for local businesses is one of the ideas presented during the commission meeting. Desentz said that this pipeline is great for prospective workers and organizations alike, since it allows freshly graduated students to get experience in the field they want to work in and it lets local businesses “reap the benefits” of younger talent coming in to work for them.
Currently, the city is trying to find ways to turn around the poverty levels of the area through new talent and allowing businesses to expand. However, a large portion of the city’s population spends over 50% of their total income on rent alone, not counting other living expenses. While there’s steps being taken, there’s still high numbers of unemployment and poverty in the area.