West Virginia

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, affecting retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base statewide.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.7%, the rate supports federal funding narratives across distressed counties (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 11.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 43 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 136,740 workers (28.4% of the tracked sectors), at an average wage of $64,133. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 134,436 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: State GDP of $106.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages $108,014 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,602, a 4.6x spread in the same economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Mining (except Oil and Gas) concentrates at 17.46x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base across the state.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.7x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction.
• High home ownership: 74.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.4% vacancy rate; potential redevelopment opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $33,142 can pay without cost burden (~$829/mo), and 40.4% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 23.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: only 55.5% of the population aged 18+ is in the labor force, suggesting untapped capacity; workforce development may unlock supply.

West Virginia shows strong potential for mining (except oil and gas) attraction, with a 17.46x concentration and 13,823 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.1% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Cluster depth across mining (except oil and gas), oil and gas extraction, and support activities for mining creates supply-chain attraction leverage, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.