Caledonia County, Vermont

• 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 $11,233 (13.8%) under the Vermont median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Aging population: Median age of 46 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 1,956 workers (24.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $65,723. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,025 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $88,236 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $24,180, a 3.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing concentrates at 4.28x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45.9% 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: 3 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 3.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 79.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 19% of housing units are vacant, below the Vermont rate of 19.4%, and down from 24.1% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 69.4% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.8% of the vacant stock, or 1.1% of all housing units against the 19% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $34,532 can pay without cost burden (~$863/mo), and 42.5% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 22.1% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 25.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 62.6% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Caledonia County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Caledonia County shows meaningful potential for furniture and related product manufacturing attraction, with a 4.28x concentration and 101 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans furniture and related product manufacturing, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and animal production and aquaculture, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.