Crockett County, Tennessee

• 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 $7,430 (10.7%) under the Tennessee median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 14.5% below the national average, so the nominal median of $62,165 is worth $72,708 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.5%, 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 19.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 985 workers (36% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $69,301. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 859 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $761M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $95,745 while Retail Trade averages $25,882, a 3.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 6.21x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35.4% 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.6x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 71.6% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 10.2% of housing units are vacant, level with the Tennessee rate of 10.2%, and down from 14.4% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 57.8% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 17.4%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 14.2% of the vacant stock, or 1.5% of all housing units against the 10.2% 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 $37,788 can pay without cost burden (~$945/mo), and 34.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• 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.
• Healthy participation: 62.8% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Crockett County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Crockett County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 6.21x concentration and 80 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 crop production, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and merchant wholesalers, durable goods, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35.4% 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.