Callaway County, Missouri

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 12.0% below the national average, so the nominal median of $74,176 is worth $84,291 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 11.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 2,365 workers (30.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $70,262. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,689 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $70,262 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,516, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 5.61x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 23.9% of the employment across them, the largest being freight and distribution. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 4 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.7x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 75.5% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 11.6% of housing units are vacant, above the Missouri rate of 11.2%, and down from 15.6% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 59% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 21.1%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 14.7% of the vacant stock, or 1.7% of all housing units against the 11.6% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $44,888 can pay without cost burden (~$1,122/mo), and 34.4% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 58.7% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 2.4% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Callaway County award 851 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Callaway County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 5.61x concentration and 127 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, rental and leasing services, and nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 23.9% of the employment across them, the largest being freight and distribution. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.