Somerset County, Pennsylvania

• 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 $16,525 (21.2%) under the Pennsylvania median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 17.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 47 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 3,804 workers (22.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $55,308. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 4,184 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $73,089 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $22,650, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Mining (except Oil and Gas) concentrates at 14.27x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 20.5% 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: 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.
• High home ownership: 80.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 22.5% of housing units are vacant, above the Pennsylvania rate of 9.2%, and down from 22.9% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 59.4% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.8% of the vacant stock, or 1.3% of all housing units against the 22.5% 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 $37,836 can pay without cost burden (~$946/mo), and 33.3% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 26.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 55.7% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 0.2% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Somerset County awards 47 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Somerset County shows strong potential for mining (except oil and gas) attraction, with a 14.27x concentration and 383 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans mining (except oil and gas), accommodation, and transit and ground passenger transportation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 20.5% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.