Placer County, California

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 6.7% above the national average, so the nominal median of $115,998 is worth $108,714 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 7.5 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 42 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 35,909 workers (24.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $93,347. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 22,287 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $34.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $134,052 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $33,020, a 4.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Construction of Buildings concentrates at 2.12x the national norm.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 59.2% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: construction and real estate cycle. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.
• Attraction whitespace: 4 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.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.9x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 74.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 11.9% of housing units are vacant, above the California rate of 7.5%, and down from 13% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 72.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 14.2% of the vacant stock, or 1.7% of all housing units against the 11.9% 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: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $70,278 can pay without cost burden (~$1,757/mo), and 54.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.4% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 61.2% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 4 institutions in Placer County award 5,561 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Placer County shows emerging potential for construction of buildings attraction, with a 2.12x concentration and 4,906 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.4% 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. Construction and real estate cycle accounts for 59.2% of it, with specialty trade contractors the largest single sub-sector at 33.3%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.