Norfolk County, Massachusetts

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 8.3% above the national average, so the nominal median of $130,739 is worth $120,719 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 23.1 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 57,482 workers (22.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $66,713. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 36,188 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $75.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $160,794 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $33,532, a 4.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Private Households concentrates at 2.18x the national norm.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 31.9% of the employment across them, the largest being finance and insurance. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 6 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 5.2x 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 $74,159 can pay without cost burden (~$1,854/mo), and 48.4% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 25.2% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 22.4% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 69.2% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 13 institutions in Norfolk County award 3,959 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Norfolk County shows emerging potential for private households attraction, with a 2.18x concentration and 1,050 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.4% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans private households, insurance carriers and related activities, and publishing industries and telecommunications, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 31.9% of the employment across them, the largest being finance and insurance. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.