Archuleta County, Colorado

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $12,405 (13.0%) under the Colorado median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 3.1% above the national average, so the nominal median of $83,065 is worth $80,567 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 5.2 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 52 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 1,110 workers (31.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $30,652. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 961 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $773M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $123,221 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $23,988, a 5.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Accommodation concentrates at 5.63x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 46.9% 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.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.8x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 80.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 39.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Colorado rate of 8.3%, and up from 37.5% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 81.6% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 8% of the vacant stock, or 3.2% of all housing units against the 39.9% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, 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 $61,047 can pay without cost burden (~$1,526/mo), and 45.3% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 32.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 50.4% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 6.6% between 2019 and 2024, from 6,421 to 6,000.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Archuleta County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Archuleta County shows strong potential for accommodation attraction, with a 5.63x concentration and 320 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 32.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans accommodation, sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and misc. retailers, and real estate, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 46.9% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.