Inyo County, California

• 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 $25,131 (25.4%) 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 $73,991 is worth $66,839 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Aging population: Median age of 46 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 1,436 workers (34.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $36,156. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,175 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Utilities averages $122,759 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $29,178, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 14.23x 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 49.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.7x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.6% of housing units are vacant, above the California rate of 7.5%, and down from 16.9% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 47.2% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 13.5% of the vacant stock, or 2.1% of all housing units against the 15.6% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $64,907 can pay without cost burden (~$1,623/mo), and 31.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 25.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 57.3% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 1.8% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Short commutes: 16.0-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Inyo County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Inyo County shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 14.23x concentration and 163 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, accommodation, and utilities, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.