Elbert County, Colorado

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Aging population: Median age of 45 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Construction employs 1,210 workers (34.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $72,785.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $124,927 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $24,160, a 5.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Specialty Trade Contractors concentrates at 5.15x 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 5.3x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 95% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$3,317/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 27.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 25,233 annual credentials.

Elbert County shows strong potential for specialty trade contractors attraction, with a 5.15x concentration and 885 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across specialty trade contractors, waste management and remediation services, and heavy and civil engineering construction creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.