Marion 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 $7,799 (11.0%) 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 $62,903 is worth $69,276 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.2%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• 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: Retail Trade employs 1,769 workers (25.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $35,477. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,766 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $75,585 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $15,109, a 5.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing concentrates at 7.06x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.9% 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.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 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 2.6x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.3% of housing units are vacant, above the Missouri rate of 11.2%, and up from 11.3% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 60.8% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 7.5%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 22.8% of the vacant stock, or 2.8% of all housing units against the 12.3% 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 $37,169 can pay without cost burden (~$929/mo), and 37% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 58.3% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 4.2% between 2019 and 2024, from 13,663 to 13,092.
• Short commutes: 17.6-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Marion County awards 171 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Marion County shows strong potential for nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing attraction, with a 7.06x concentration and 246 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing, machinery manufacturing, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.