Jasper County, South Carolina

• 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 $3,711 (5.4%) under the South Carolina median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Elevated poverty: At 17.8%, 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 9.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• 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: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 2,061 workers (23.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $37,920. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,303 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $81,643 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $25,222, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 18.62x 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 34.2% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 5.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 77.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 11.1% of housing units are vacant, below the South Carolina rate of 13.3%, and down from 13.5% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 33.8% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.5% of the vacant stock, or 0.6% of all housing units against the 11.1% 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 $47,976 can pay without cost burden (~$1,199/mo), and 38% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 24.4% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 28.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 52% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 4.9% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Jasper County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Jasper County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 18.62x concentration and 64 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 28.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans forestry and logging, waste management and remediation services, and motor vehicle and parts dealers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 34.2% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.