Windham 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 $8,986 (11.1%) under the Vermont median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 8.3 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 47 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 3,240 workers (20.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $63,371. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,810 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $122,859 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $31,677, a 3.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Accommodation concentrates at 5.63x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 15 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 24.2% 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.9x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 73.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 34.5% of housing units are vacant, above the Vermont rate of 19.4%, and down from 38.1% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 85.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 3.6% of the vacant stock, or 1.3% of all housing units against the 34.5% 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: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $43,328 can pay without cost burden (~$1,083/mo), and 41.2% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 27.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 61.9% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Windham County awards 134 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Windham County shows strong potential for accommodation attraction, with a 5.63x concentration and 1,464 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans accommodation, wood product manufacturing, and machinery manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 24.2% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.