Yates County, New York

• 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 $16,273 (18.9%) under the New York median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 7.9% above the national average, so the nominal median of $69,701 is worth $64,598 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 10.2 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: Manufacturing employs 1,260 workers (33.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $52,575. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,069 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $67,824 while Information averages $23,520, a 2.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 27.50x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.7% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• 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.
• High home ownership: 77.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 28.2% of housing units are vacant, above the New York rate of 10%, and down from 35.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 84.6% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 2.1% of the vacant stock, or 0.6% of all housing units against the 28.2% 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 $38,209 can pay without cost burden (~$955/mo), and 30.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 26.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 54.6% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 10% between 2019 and 2024, from 11,916 to 10,725.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Yates County awards 479 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Yates County shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 27.50x concentration and 413 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, crop production, and private households, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.7% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.