Elmore County, Alabama

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 10.3% below the national average, so the nominal median of $78,243 is worth $87,227 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 10.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 4,068 workers (25.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $33,263. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 4,649 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $94,556 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $17,974, a 5.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 6.14x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 46% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 77% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 12% of housing units are vacant, below the Alabama rate of 14.5%, and down from 13% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 35.5% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 14.8% of the vacant stock, or 1.8% of all housing units against the 12% 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 $46,226 can pay without cost burden (~$1,156/mo), and 39.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 59.8% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 19.1% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Elmore County awards 631 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Elmore County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 6.14x concentration and 37 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans forestry and logging, general merchandise retailers, and building material and garden supply retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 46% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.