Rosebud County, Montana

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 24.5%, 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 14.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Utilities employs 324 workers (33.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $144,380.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Utilities averages $144,380 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $17,268, a 8.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Utilities concentrates at 23.17x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• 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: 4 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 3.7x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 18.8% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,248/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 24% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Short commutes: 15.5-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 7,525 annual credentials.

Rosebud County shows strong potential for utilities attraction, with a 23.17x concentration and 324 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across utilities, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and specialty trade contractors creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.