Rockbridge 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 $27,701 (29.7%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Aging population: Median age of 50 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 1,165 workers (26.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $34,109. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,155 and is counted separately.
• Wage stratification: Real Estate and Rental and Leasing averages $70,857 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $24,618, a 2.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 10.27x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 60% 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 3.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 79.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 19.2% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 64.6% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 19.3%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 7.2% of the vacant stock, or 1.1% of all housing units against the 15.9% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $43,103 can pay without cost burden (~$1,078/mo), and 36.4% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 29.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 56% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 2.6% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Rockbridge County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Rockbridge County shows strong potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 10.27x concentration and 410 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 29.1% 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 60% of it, with gasoline stations and fuel dealers the largest single sub-sector at 23.3%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.