Amador County, California

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $11,078 (11.2%) under the California median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 10.7% above the national average, so the nominal median of $88,044 is worth $79,534 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 13.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 50 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 1,634 workers (25.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $66,480. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 4,735 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $74,844 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $26,950, a 2.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 20.05x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.9% 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.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.1x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 80.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.4% of housing units are vacant, above the California rate of 7.5%, and down from 20.6% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 66% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 7.9% of the vacant stock, or 1.2% of all housing units against the 15.4% 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 $60,784 can pay without cost burden (~$1,520/mo), and 40.4% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 27.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 48.3% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 17.1% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Amador County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Amador County shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 20.05x concentration and 392 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, support activities for agriculture and forestry, and building material and garden supply retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.