Dubuque County, Iowa

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 12.7% below the national average, so the nominal median of $77,630 is worth $88,923 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 10,492 workers (22.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $77,753. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 4,710 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $9.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $86,956 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,394, a 4.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Machinery Manufacturing concentrates at 7.63x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45% 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.
• Attraction whitespace: 5 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 73.3% 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 $40,776 can pay without cost burden (~$1,019/mo), and 42.2% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 66.8% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 16.7-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 7 institutions in Dubuque County award 1,484 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Dubuque County shows strong potential for machinery manufacturing attraction, with a 7.63x concentration and 3,422 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans machinery manufacturing, wood product manufacturing, and fabricated metal product manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.