Pulaski County, Virginia

• 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 $31,142 (33.4%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 7.3% below the national average, so the nominal median of $62,028 is worth $66,913 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.4%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 14.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• 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: Manufacturing employs 3,935 workers (36.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $80,076. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,216 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $91,485 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $17,432, a 5.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation concentrates at 4.56x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 55.2% 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 3.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 73.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.2% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 16% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 28.8% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 13.9% of the vacant stock, or 2.1% of all housing units against the 15.2% 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 $36,042 can pay without cost burden (~$901/mo), and 38.4% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 25.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 53.9% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 7.3% between 2019 and 2024, from 16,528 to 15,324.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Pulaski County awards 942 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Pulaski County shows meaningful potential for transit and ground passenger transportation attraction, with a 4.56x concentration and 223 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.7% 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 55.2% of it, with general merchandise retailers the largest single sub-sector at 29.3%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.