Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $12,250 (13.2%) under the Alaska median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 5.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 3,313 workers (22.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $71,188. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 5,064 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages $143,231 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $32,240, a 4.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation concentrates at 67.24x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 19 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 47.9% 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.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed and clear the local siting screen on energy cost, freight access and land base, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 77% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 25.8% of housing units are vacant, above the Alaska rate of 17.6%, and down from 30.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 62.9% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 6.8% of the vacant stock, or 1.8% of all housing units against the 25.8% 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 $50,430 can pay without cost burden (~$1,261/mo), and 43.3% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 56% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 0.5% between 2019 and 2024, from 27,410 to 27,265.
• Short commutes: 20.7-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Kenai Peninsula Borough award 101 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Kenai Peninsula Borough shows strong potential for scenic and sightseeing transportation attraction, with a 67.24x concentration and 254 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans scenic and sightseeing transportation, fishing, hunting and trapping, and support activities for mining, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 47.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.