Gloucester County, Virginia

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $8,864 (9.5%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 10.4 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 45 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 1,863 workers (26.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $36,106. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,229 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.4B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $70,336 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $24,808, a 2.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Waste Management and Remediation Services concentrates at 4.63x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 57.3% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: resident household spending. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.

• 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: 80.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 11.8% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and up from 10.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 40% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 24.2% of the vacant stock, or 2.9% of all housing units against the 11.8% 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 $52,140 can pay without cost burden (~$1,304/mo), and 34.9% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 10% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 27.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 59.8% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 4.1% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Gloucester County awards 923 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Gloucester County shows meaningful potential for waste management and remediation services attraction, with a 4.63x concentration and 142 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Resident household spending accounts for 57.3% of it, with food services and drinking places the largest single sub-sector at 29.6%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.