Pine 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 $17,916 (20.1%) 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 18.3 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: Retail Trade employs 1,086 workers (24.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $30,216. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,712 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $995M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $63,398 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,915, a 3.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 31.49x 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 32.6% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. 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 3.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 81.6% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 28.7% of housing units are vacant, above the Minnesota rate of 9.3%, and down from 38.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 87.8% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 2.2% of the vacant stock, or 0.6% of all housing units against the 28.7% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $32,042 can pay without cost burden (~$801/mo), and 39.7% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 21.3% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• 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.
• Low participation: 56.5% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 4.5% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Pine County awards 333 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Pine County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 31.49x concentration and 57 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 forestry and logging, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and transit and ground passenger transportation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 32.6% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.