Carolina Municipio, Puerto Rico

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 27.9%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Aging population: Median age of 45 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 8,573 workers (21.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $27,839. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 5,877 and is counted separately.
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $68,840 while Administrative and Support and Waste Management averages $17,857, a 3.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Air Transportation concentrates at 10.70x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.6% of the employment across them, the largest being business and professional services. 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Vacancy level: 19% of housing units are vacant, below the Puerto Rico rate of 21%, and down from 19.6% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 27.2% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 9.2% of the vacant stock, or 1.8% of all housing units against the 19% 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 $23,631 can pay without cost burden (~$591/mo), and 33.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 53.5% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 3% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 6 institutions in Carolina Municipio award 2,116 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Carolina Municipio shows strong potential for air transportation attraction, with a 10.70x concentration and 2,036 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans air transportation, support activities for transportation, and rental and leasing services, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.6% of the employment across them, the largest being business and professional services. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.