Summit County, Ohio

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 6.6% below the national average, so the nominal median of $71,622 is worth $76,683 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 49,082 workers (24.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $66,865. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 27,144 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $40.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $115,139 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,326, a 4.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing concentrates at 3.12x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.3% 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.
• 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.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $41,345 can pay without cost burden (~$1,034/mo), and 44.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 23.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 64.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 6 institutions in Summit County award 4,643 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Summit County shows meaningful potential for plastics and rubber products manufacturing attraction, with a 3.12x concentration and 3,824 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans plastics and rubber products manufacturing, primary metal manufacturing, and beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.3% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.