Clark County, Missouri

• 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 $18,921 (26.8%) under the Missouri median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 9.2% below the national average, so the nominal median of $51,781 is worth $57,028 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 20.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 239 workers (31% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $29,288. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 479 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $201M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Transportation and Warehousing averages $54,242 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $16,580, a 3.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 11.41x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 44.6% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. 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: 78.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 25.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Missouri rate of 11.2%, and up from 24% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 77.4% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 17.7%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 3% of the vacant stock, or 0.7% of all housing units against the 25.1% 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 $27,298 can pay without cost burden (~$682/mo), and 29.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 27.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 52.9% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 14.8% between 2019 and 2024, from 3,266 to 2,784.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Clark County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Clark County shows strong potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 11.41x concentration and 85 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans gasoline stations and fuel dealers, crop production, and building material and garden supply retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 44.6% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.