Putnam County, New York

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 12.6% above the national average, so the nominal median of $126,257 is worth $112,129 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 9.8 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• 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: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 4,191 workers (22.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $68,812. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 4,785 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $5.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $89,159 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $30,946, a 2.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Web Search Portals, Libraries, and Archives concentrates at 4.13x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 15 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.1% 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.7x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 83.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $61,978 can pay without cost burden (~$1,549/mo), and 55% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 26.2% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 25.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 64.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Putnam County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Putnam County shows meaningful potential for web search portals, libraries, and archives attraction, with a 4.13x concentration and 121 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans web search portals, libraries, and archives, transit and ground passenger transportation, and museums, historical sites, and similar, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.1% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.