East Carroll Parish, Louisiana

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 35.2%, 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 149 workers (48.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $38,629.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $166M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $98,135 while Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting averages $38,629, a 2.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 25.68x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 4 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 23.8% 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: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$834/mo).

• Low participation: 41% 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 16,131 annual credentials.

East Carroll Parish shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 25.68x concentration and 123 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 merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.