Rensselaer County, New York

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Broadly in line with U.S. norms across income, poverty, and education.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 7,932 workers (20% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $56,452. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 11,163 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $15.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $126,352 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $28,785, a 4.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Mining (except Oil and Gas) concentrates at 4.21x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 29.9% of the employment across them, the largest being education economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 5 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 2.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 10.5% of housing units are vacant, above the New York rate of 10%, and down from 11.1% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 52.4% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 19%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 24.2% of the vacant stock, or 2.5% of all housing units against the 10.5% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $48,621 can pay without cost burden (~$1,216/mo), and 44.8% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 21.1% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 22.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 63.6% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 4 institutions in Rensselaer County award 4,286 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Rensselaer County shows meaningful potential for mining (except oil and gas) attraction, with a 4.21x concentration and 268 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans mining (except oil and gas), transit and ground passenger transportation, and utilities, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 29.9% of the employment across them, the largest being education economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.