Marion County, West Virginia

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 10.5% below the national average, so the nominal median of $67,370 is worth $75,274 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 8.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 2,692 workers (22.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $50,777. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,355 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Utilities averages $117,556 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,636, a 5.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Utilities concentrates at 10.95x 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 42.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.5x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 76.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 11.2% of housing units are vacant, below the West Virginia rate of 15.4%, and down from 13.1% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 57.6% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 13.3%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 24.7% of the vacant stock, or 2.8% of all housing units against the 11.2% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $41,537 can pay without cost burden (~$1,038/mo), and 37.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 59.1% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 3.1% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Marion County award 1,569 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Marion County shows strong potential for utilities attraction, with a 10.95x concentration and 694 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans utilities, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and electrical equipment, appliance manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 42.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.