Montgomery County, Indiana

• 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 $478 (0.7%) under the Indiana median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 6.7% below the national average, so the nominal median of $71,479 is worth $76,612 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 15.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 4,719 workers (43.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $83,911. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,058 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $97,547 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,130, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing concentrates at 3.89x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 61.4% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: goods manufacturing. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.4x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 80.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $33,648 can pay without cost burden (~$841/mo), and 38.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 63.9% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Montgomery County awards 244 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Montgomery County shows meaningful potential for fabricated metal product manufacturing attraction, with a 3.89x concentration and 580 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.1% 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. Goods manufacturing accounts for 61.4% of it, with fabricated metal product manufacturing the largest single sub-sector at 49.4%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.