Jackson County, Illinois

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 21%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Young population: Median age of 32 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 4,163 workers (28.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $64,780.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $115,161 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $22,325, a 5.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction concentrates at 2.06x the national norm.
• Cluster depth: 3 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.8x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 17.2% 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.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,219/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Low participation: 58.1% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Short commutes: 20.3-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 37,237 annual credentials.

Jackson County shows emerging potential for heavy and civil engineering construction attraction, with a 2.06x concentration and 433 jobs in this sub-sector.

The interconnected base across heavy and civil engineering construction, general merchandise retailers, and educational services creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.