Toa Baja 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 32.4%, 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 7.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 43 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 3,607 workers (31.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $27,843. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,560 and is counted separately.
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $42,872 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $17,938, a 2.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 12.61x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 17 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.5% 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: 4 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 4.7x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Vacancy level: 18.2% of housing units are vacant, below the Puerto Rico rate of 21%, and down from 21% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 29.5% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 12.6% of the vacant stock, or 2.3% of all housing units against the 18.2% 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 $23,294 can pay without cost burden (~$582/mo), and 24.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 54.5% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 4.1% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Toa Baja Municipio per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Toa Baja Municipio shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 12.61x concentration and 397 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, food manufacturing, and health and personal care retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.5% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.