Chaffee County, Colorado

• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 11.3 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 49 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Accommodation and Food Services employs 1,671 workers (28.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $33,206.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $101,127 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $27,941, a 3.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 5.08x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 7.9x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 74.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.1% vacancy rate. In resort, rural, and seasonal markets much of this is recreational/seasonal (second homes), not available supply; confirm the vacancy-by-reason split before treating it as a redevelopment opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$2,103/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 24.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 57% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Short commutes: 18.1-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 25,233 annual credentials.

Chaffee County shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 5.08x concentration and 100 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, amusement, gambling, and recreation industries, and accommodation creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.