Clay County, Texas

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 10.5% below the national average, so the nominal median of $80,114 is worth $89,513 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 13.3 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 199 workers (25.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $67,658. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 579 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $433M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $84,206 while Other Services (except Public Administration) averages $34,107, a 2.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 24.76x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 3 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 65.3% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: resident household spending. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.1x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 84% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 16.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Texas rate of 9.4%, and down from 21.9% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 62.5% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 21.1%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 11.9% of the vacant stock, or 2% of all housing units against the 16.9% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $51,442 can pay without cost burden (~$1,286/mo), and 26.1% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 30% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 60.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Clay County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Clay County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 24.76x concentration and 52 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 30% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Resident household spending accounts for 65.3% of it, with motor vehicle and parts dealers the largest single sub-sector at 51.3%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.