Ocean County, New Jersey

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 45,572 workers (30.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $61,807.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $31.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $88,157 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $29,189, a 3.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Fishing, Hunting and Trapping concentrates at 8.44x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 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 4.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 80.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 17.7% 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 (~$2,247/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 25.4% 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 24,370 annual credentials.

Ocean County shows strong potential for fishing, hunting and trapping attraction, with a 8.44x concentration and 78 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.4% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across fishing, hunting and trapping, , and educational services creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.