Upshur 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 $12,268 (15.6%) under the Texas median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 10.5% below the national average, so the nominal median of $66,208 is worth $73,975 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 17.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Construction employs 850 workers (16.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $66,916. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,947 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Transportation and Warehousing averages $78,931 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,095, a 3.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Utilities concentrates at 5.97x 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 30.1% 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 2.5x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 80.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 11.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Texas rate of 9.4%, and down from 17.3% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 67.6% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 14.7%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 15.2% of the vacant stock, or 1.7% 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.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $42,992 can pay without cost burden (~$1,075/mo), and 32.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 56.6% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 5.4% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Upshur County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Upshur County shows strong potential for utilities attraction, with a 5.97x concentration and 154 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans utilities, truck transportation, and heavy and civil engineering construction, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.1% 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.