Malheur County, Oregon

• 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 $28,492 (34.3%) under the Oregon median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 3.4% above the national average, so the nominal median of $54,519 is worth $52,726 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 17.6%, 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 20.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 2,217 workers (31.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $40,873. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,539 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.6B (2024).

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 15.63x 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 43.1% 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.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.6x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.2% of housing units are vacant, above the Oregon rate of 7.5%, and down from 15.4% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 62.5% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 17.9%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 13.3% of the vacant stock, or 1.6% of all housing units against the 12.2% 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 $40,938 can pay without cost burden (~$1,023/mo), and 33.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 50.4% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 6.3% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Short commutes: 19.0-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Malheur County awards 389 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Malheur County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 15.63x concentration and 618 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans crop production, food manufacturing, and sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and misc. retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 43.1% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.