Ouray County, Colorado

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 20.8 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 55 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Accommodation and Food Services employs 539 workers (37.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $35,728.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $309M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $93,080 while Retail Trade averages $30,799, a 3.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 11.04x 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, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 8.1x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 82.5% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 25.7% 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 (~$2,276/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 28.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 55.6% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 25,233 annual credentials.

Ouray County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 11.04x concentration and 42 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 28.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across animal production and aquaculture, accommodation, and private households creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.