Florida

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, affecting retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base statewide.
• Aging population: Median age of 43 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 1,374,246 workers (18.5% of the tracked sectors), at an average wage of $70,557. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,099,769 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: State GDP of $1,726.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $136,780 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $35,168, a 3.9x spread in the same economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Water Transportation concentrates at 4.54x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base across the state.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.7% vacancy rate; potential redevelopment opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $53,617 can pay without cost burden (~$1,340/mo), and 56.3% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 29.3% severely so.

• Succession risk is real: 22.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 61.5% of the population aged 18+ is in the labor force, reflecting a steady, available workforce statewide.

Florida shows meaningful potential for water transportation attraction, with a 4.54x concentration and 20,595 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Cluster depth across water transportation, scenic and sightseeing transportation, and amusement, gambling, and recreation industries creates supply-chain attraction leverage, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.