Franklin County, Vermont

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 5.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 2,768 workers (23% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $76,600. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,960 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $103,913 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $29,724, a 3.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 18.74x 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 42.2% 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 3.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 77.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 13.3% of housing units are vacant, below the Vermont rate of 19.4%, and down from 17.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 66% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 7.5% of the vacant stock, or 1% of all housing units against the 13.3% 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 $46,281 can pay without cost burden (~$1,157/mo), and 43.6% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 25% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• 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: 65.2% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Franklin County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Franklin County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 18.74x concentration and 502 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, food manufacturing, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 42.2% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.