Broward County, Florida

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 14.2% above the national average, so the nominal median of $77,633 is worth $67,980 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 103,570 workers (16.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $48,907. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 108,815 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $173.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $120,305 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $35,389, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Water Transportation concentrates at 7.13x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 59.1% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: business and professional services. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.3x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Vacancy level: 12.9% of housing units are vacant, below the Florida rate of 14.7%, and down from 16.2% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 55.6% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 22.7% of the vacant stock, or 2.9% of all housing units against the 12.9% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion 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 $57,896 can pay without cost burden (~$1,447/mo), and 61.9% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 33.1% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 22.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 66.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 26 institutions in Broward County award 27,762 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Broward County shows strong potential for water transportation attraction, with a 7.13x concentration and 2,771 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.3% 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. Business and professional services accounts for 59.1% of it, with administrative and support services the largest single sub-sector at 55.2%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.