Racine County, Wisconsin

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 4.0% below the national average, so the nominal median of $78,096 is worth $81,350 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 7.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 17,171 workers (28.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $91,881. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 8,812 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $11.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $96,029 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $22,275, a 4.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Electrical Equipment, Appliance Manufacturing concentrates at 9.60x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 15 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 75.8% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: goods manufacturing. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.
• Attraction whitespace: 7 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.2x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 71% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $47,129 can pay without cost burden (~$1,178/mo), and 40.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 64.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Racine County awards 5 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Racine County shows strong potential for electrical equipment, appliance manufacturing attraction, with a 9.60x concentration and 2,091 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.2% 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. Goods manufacturing accounts for 75.8% of it, with chemical manufacturing the largest single sub-sector at 12.7%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.