Murray County, Minnesota

• 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 $15,029 (16.9%) under the Minnesota median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 12.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 46 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 473 workers (32% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $56,350. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 579 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $721M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $84,858 while Other Services (except Public Administration) averages $33,418, a 2.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 9.69x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 26.1% 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.5x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 82.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 18% of housing units are vacant, above the Minnesota rate of 9.3%, and down from 21.2% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 65.3% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 10.9% of the vacant stock, or 2% of all housing units against the 18% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $38,257 can pay without cost burden (~$956/mo), and 28.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 27.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 62.5% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 21.0-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Murray County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Murray County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 9.69x concentration and 45 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, mining (except oil and gas), and support activities for agriculture and forestry, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 26.1% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.