Mohave County, Arizona

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $22,280 (27.9%) under the Arizona median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 5.9% below the national average, so the nominal median of $57,684 is worth $61,301 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.1%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 20.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 54 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 10,041 workers (23.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $39,466. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 8,601 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $9.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $75,522 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $27,805, a 2.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 3.97x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 53.3% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: resident household spending. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 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 4.9x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 74.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 16.3% of housing units are vacant, above the Arizona rate of 10.5%, and down from 24.2% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 70.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 8.7% of the vacant stock, or 1.4% of all housing units against the 16.3% 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 $43,979 can pay without cost burden (~$1,099/mo), and 43.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 31% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 44.5% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 5.9% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Short commutes: 19.9-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Mohave County awards 35 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Mohave County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 3.97x concentration and 1,488 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 31% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Resident household spending accounts for 53.3% of it, with hospitals the largest single sub-sector at 18.3%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.