Clinton 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 $75 (0.1%) under the Missouri median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 7.5% below the national average, so the nominal median of $70,627 is worth $76,354 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 13.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 42 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 1,077 workers (35.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $56,123. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,056 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $575M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $71,411 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $19,993, a 3.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 8.90x 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 31% 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.2x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 75.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $47,192 can pay without cost burden (~$1,180/mo), and 29.2% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 25.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 60.5% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Clinton County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Clinton County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 8.90x concentration and 94 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans wood product manufacturing, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and nursing and residential care facilities, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 31% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.