San Miguel County, Colorado

• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 29.2 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 43 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Accommodation and Food Services employs 1,560 workers (33.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $51,417.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $142,558 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $40,907, a 3.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Accommodation concentrates at 8.11x 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.
• Attraction whitespace: 7 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 9.1x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 30.8% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,976/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 23.4% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Strong participation: 81.3% labor force participation among working-age residents indicates an engaged, available workforce.
• Short commutes: 16.7-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.

San Miguel County shows strong potential for accommodation attraction, with a 8.11x concentration and 607 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.4% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across accommodation, real estate, and sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and misc. retailers creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.