Jones County, Texas

• 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 $19,012 (24.2%) under the Texas median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 9.6% below the national average, so the nominal median of $59,464 is worth $65,779 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.1%, 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 23.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 325 workers (18.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $41,416. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,078 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $600M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $91,190 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $15,902, a 5.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Pipeline Transportation concentrates at 21.65x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.8% 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 1.6x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 80.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 16.2% of housing units are vacant, above the Texas rate of 9.4%, and down from 22.4% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 81.9% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 7.5%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 3.2% of the vacant stock, or 0.5% of all housing units against the 16.2% 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 $48,395 can pay without cost burden (~$1,210/mo), and 33.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 40.7% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 36.1% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Jones County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Jones County shows strong potential for pipeline transportation attraction, with a 21.65x concentration and 20 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans pipeline transportation, mining (except oil and gas), and animal production and aquaculture, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.8% 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.