Franklin County, Massachusetts

• 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 $29,053 (27.9%) under the Massachusetts median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 5.8% above the national average, so the nominal median of $74,907 is worth $70,801 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Aging population: Median age of 47 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 4,112 workers (23.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $47,086. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 5,178 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $74,399 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $26,082, a 2.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing concentrates at 9.18x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 14 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 26.2% 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: 3 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 4.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 70.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $39,323 can pay without cost burden (~$983/mo), and 53.1% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 26.6% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 26.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 62.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Franklin County awards 274 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Franklin County shows strong potential for plastics and rubber products manufacturing attraction, with a 9.18x concentration and 1,010 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans plastics and rubber products manufacturing, crop production, and museums, historical sites, and similar, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 26.2% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.