Juneau County, Wisconsin

• 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 $10,215 (13.2%) under the Wisconsin median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 5.9% below the national average, so the nominal median of $67,270 is worth $71,488 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 18.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 46 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,840 workers (35.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $59,048. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,402 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Management of Companies and Enterprises averages $94,834 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $18,115, a 5.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing concentrates at 10.40x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 47.5% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.6x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 78.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 25.8% of housing units are vacant, above the Wisconsin rate of 10.8%, and down from 29% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 78.4% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 6.1% of the vacant stock, or 1.6% of all housing units against the 25.8% 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: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $48,489 can pay without cost burden (~$1,212/mo), and 31.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 27.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 56.7% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 1% between 2019 and 2024, from 12,705 to 12,584.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Juneau County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Juneau County shows strong potential for fabricated metal product manufacturing attraction, with a 10.40x concentration and 773 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans fabricated metal product manufacturing, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and wood product manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 47.5% of the employment across them, the largest being goods manufacturing. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.