Bristol County, Massachusetts

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $18,335 (17.6%) under the Massachusetts median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 42,694 workers (23.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $61,535. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 29,781 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $36B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $103,734 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $27,727, a 3.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Apparel Manufacturing concentrates at 7.42x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 16 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.9% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 4 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed and clear the local siting screen on energy cost, freight access and land base, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.3x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $45,612 can pay without cost burden (~$1,140/mo), and 49.4% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 25.4% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 23% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 65.2% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 10 institutions in Bristol County award 4,589 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Bristol County shows strong potential for apparel manufacturing attraction, with a 7.42x concentration and 912 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans apparel manufacturing, miscellaneous manufacturing, and textile product mills, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.9% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.