Missouri

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, affecting retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base statewide.
• Broadly in line with U.S. norms across income, poverty, education, and age.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 458,013 workers (22.3% of the tracked sectors), at an average wage of $63,120. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 415,169 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: State GDP of $448.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $108,945 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $27,086, a 4.0x spread in the same economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Rail Transportation concentrates at 8.80x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base across the state.
• Attraction whitespace: 6 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 11.2% vacancy rate; potential redevelopment opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $43,288 can pay without cost burden (~$1,082/mo), and 42% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 65.3% of the population aged 18+ is in the labor force, reflecting a steady, available workforce statewide.

Missouri shows strong potential for rail transportation attraction, with a 8.80x concentration and 111 jobs in this sub-sector.

Cluster depth across rail transportation, leather and allied product manufacturing, and postal service creates supply-chain attraction leverage, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.