Wayne County, Georgia

• 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 $23,926 (30.9%) under the Georgia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 3.7% below the national average, so the nominal median of $53,427 is worth $55,480 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 21.3%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 19.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,466 workers (27.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $80,918. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,270 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $80,918 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,091, a 4.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Paper Manufacturing concentrates at 59.70x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.8% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Georgia rate of 10.3%, and down from 15.4% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 76.1% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 11.2%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 12.7% of the vacant stock, or 1.6% 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.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $38,469 can pay without cost burden (~$962/mo), and 35.3% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 51.6% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 8.1% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Wayne County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Wayne County shows strong potential for paper manufacturing attraction, with a 59.70x concentration and 1,069 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans paper manufacturing, furniture and related product manufacturing, and animal production and aquaculture, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.8% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.