Lajas Municipio, Puerto Rico

• 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 $6,602 (25.1%) under the Puerto Rico median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Elevated poverty: At 52.6%, 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 13.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 48 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,116 workers (45% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $23,965. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 829 and is counted separately.
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $37,516 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $15,499, a 2.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation concentrates at 40.99x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45.8% 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.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.5x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 29.7% of housing units are vacant, above the Puerto Rico rate of 21%, and down from 37.4% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 42.6% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 4.7% of the vacant stock, or 1.4% of all housing units against the 29.7% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $14,839 can pay without cost burden (~$371/mo), and 20% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 8.4% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 23.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 43.2% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 36.7% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Lajas Municipio per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Lajas Municipio shows strong potential for scenic and sightseeing transportation attraction, with a 40.99x concentration and 26 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans scenic and sightseeing transportation, crop production, and animal production and aquaculture, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45.8% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.