Hendry County, Florida

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 22.5%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 23.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting employs 2,456 workers (26.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $81,446.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting averages $81,446 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $25,850, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 46.39x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.9x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 73.6% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.5% 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 (~$1,410/mo).

• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 56,676 annual credentials.

Hendry County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 46.39x concentration and 1,990 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The interconnected base across crop production, support activities for agriculture and forestry, and heavy and civil engineering construction creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.