Jackson County, Oklahoma

• 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 $2,240 (3.4%) under the Oklahoma median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 12.2% below the national average, so the nominal median of $62,799 is worth $71,525 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.2%, 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 10.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 35 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 1,159 workers (26.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $19,174. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,797 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Educational Services averages $138,150 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $19,174, a 7.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 4.81x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.2% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. 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 2.5x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 19% of housing units are vacant, above the Oklahoma rate of 12%, and down from 19.4% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 59.9% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 11.4%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 19% of the vacant stock, or 3.6% of all housing units against the 19% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $45,250 can pay without cost burden (~$1,131/mo), and 33.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 65.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 13.1-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Jackson County award 463 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Jackson County shows meaningful potential for crop production attraction, with a 4.81x concentration and 114 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans crop production, educational services, and building material and garden supply retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.2% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.