Gem County, Idaho

• 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 $13,195 (17.0%) under the Idaho median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 15.0 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 605 workers (25.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $32,784. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 971 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $696M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $69,033 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $12,262, a 5.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 4.63x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.5% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 6.6x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 76% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $56,111 can pay without cost burden (~$1,403/mo), and 35.2% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 26.4% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 55.4% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 24.2% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Gem County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Gem County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 4.63x concentration and 132 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.4% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans gasoline stations and fuel dealers, animal production and aquaculture, and crop production, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.5% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.