Whitley County, Indiana

• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 12.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 6,000 workers (55.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $74,583.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $91,380 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $16,296, a 5.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Primary Metal Manufacturing concentrates at 45.81x 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.

• 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.
• High home ownership: 81.8% 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 (~$1,952/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 23.8% 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 59,581 annual credentials.

Whitley County shows strong potential for primary metal manufacturing attraction, with a 45.81x concentration and 1,512 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across primary metal manufacturing, miscellaneous manufacturing, and computer and electronic product manufacturing creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.