Lincoln County, North Carolina

• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 7.4 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 4,864 workers (24% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $67,707.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $4.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $93,984 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,816, a 4.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Textile Mills concentrates at 20.22x 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 4.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 78.9% 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 (~$2,000/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 25.3% 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 28,942 annual credentials.

Lincoln County shows strong potential for textile mills attraction, with a 20.22x concentration and 304 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across textile mills, fabricated metal product manufacturing, and support activities for transportation creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.