Phelps County, Missouri

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.8%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 2,936 workers (25% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $59,167.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $76,643 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $19,056, a 4.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Couriers and Messengers concentrates at 2.65x the national norm.
• Cluster depth: 9 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 3.5x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.6% 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 (~$1,460/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Low participation: 56.8% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Short commutes: 19.1-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 21,457 annual credentials.

Phelps County shows emerging potential for couriers and messengers attraction, with a 2.65x concentration and 375 jobs in this sub-sector.

The interconnected base across couriers and messengers, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and nursing and residential care facilities creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.