Union County, Arkansas

• 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 $5,514 (9.1%) under the Arkansas median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 13.1% below the national average, so the nominal median of $55,259 is worth $63,589 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 19.5%, 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 16.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 2,792 workers (22.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $83,301. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,183 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.4B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $83,301 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $18,603, a 4.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 16.98x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 14 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35.3% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. 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, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.2x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 72.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 19.6% of housing units are vacant, above the Arkansas rate of 13.5%, and down from 21.5% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 41.8% 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 1.7% of all housing units against the 19.6% 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 $33,418 can pay without cost burden (~$835/mo), and 39.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 23.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 56.2% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 3.4% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Short commutes: 20.1-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Union County award 722 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Union County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 16.98x concentration and 753 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans wood product manufacturing, forestry and logging, and waste management and remediation services, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35.3% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.