Miami-Dade County, Florida

• 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 $2,815 (3.8%) under the Florida median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 14.2% above the national average, so the nominal median of $71,753 is worth $62,831 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.7%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 179,291 workers (18.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $72,743. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 137,825 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $260.8B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $213,240 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $43,441, a 4.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Water Transportation concentrates at 21.58x 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 37.3% 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.
• Attraction whitespace: 7 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 6.5x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Vacancy level: 10.9% of housing units are vacant, below the Florida rate of 14.7%, and down from 13.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 42.2% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 28.1% of the vacant stock, or 3.1% of all housing units against the 10.9% 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.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $53,660 can pay without cost burden (~$1,342/mo), and 60.9% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 33.4% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Healthy participation: 64.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 55 institutions in Miami-Dade County award 45,349 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Miami-Dade County shows strong potential for water transportation attraction, with a 21.58x concentration and 12,658 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans water transportation, air transportation, and support activities for transportation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.3% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.