Gillespie County, Texas

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $2,314 (2.9%) under the Texas median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Aging population: Median age of 51 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 2,173 workers (21.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $31,157. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,279 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.8B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $97,383 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $31,157, a 3.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 28.77x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 15 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 38.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. 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.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 6.0x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 74.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 19.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Texas rate of 9.4%, and up from 18.9% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 58.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 17.6% of the vacant stock, or 3.5% of all housing units against the 19.9% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, 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 $48,630 can pay without cost burden (~$1,216/mo), and 44% 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.
• Low participation: 54.9% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 1% between 2019 and 2024, from 12,646 to 12,523.
• Short commutes: 21.9-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Gillespie County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Gillespie County shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 28.77x concentration and 801 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.

The concentrated base spans beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, fishing, hunting and trapping, and museums, historical sites, and similar, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 38.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.