Spokane County, Washington

• 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 $19,559 (19.9%) under the Washington median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 48,826 workers (27.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $69,738. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 37,320 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $40B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $117,296 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $30,425, a 3.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing concentrates at 6.75x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.4% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.2x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $50,055 can pay without cost burden (~$1,251/mo), and 49.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 62% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 11 institutions in Spokane County award 9,916 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Spokane County shows strong potential for leather and allied product manufacturing attraction, with a 6.75x concentration and 248 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans leather and allied product manufacturing, primary metal manufacturing, and warehousing and storage, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.4% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.