Webster County, Kentucky

• 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 $4,098 (6.4%) under the Kentucky median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 9.8% below the national average, so the nominal median of $59,628 is worth $66,106 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 22.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Construction employs 492 workers (34.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $78,074. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 689 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $539M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $81,254 while Retail Trade averages $24,495, a 3.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 6.43x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.1% 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 1.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 73.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 14% of housing units are vacant, above the Kentucky rate of 10.3%, and down from 16.9% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 62.4% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 4.6%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 20.4% of the vacant stock, or 2.9% of all housing units against the 14% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes shown above sit below what a household on the median renter income of $54,144 can pay without cost burden (~$1,354/mo), and 15.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened; a cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 23.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 54.4% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 5.5% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Webster County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Webster County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 6.43x concentration and 42 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.1% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans wood product manufacturing, specialty trade contractors, and truck transportation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.1% 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.