Addison County, Vermont

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 7.9 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,764 workers (24.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $83,289. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,900 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $120,641 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $28,432, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 19.81x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 34.6% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 79.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 15% of housing units are vacant, below the Vermont rate of 19.4%, and down from 16.3% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 76.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 6.6% of the vacant stock, or 1% of all housing units against the 15% 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 $51,769 can pay without cost burden (~$1,294/mo), and 42% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 23.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 64.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Addison County awards 978 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Addison County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 19.81x concentration and 550 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, and forestry and logging, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 34.6% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.