Highland County, Ohio

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.1%, 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 19.4 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 1,893 workers (27.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $57,106.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $68,960 while Educational Services averages $22,242, a 3.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Transportation Equipment Manufacturing concentrates at 5.37x 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: 4 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.6x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 74.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 11% 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 (~$1,645/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 23.6% 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 39,395 annual credentials.

Highland County shows strong potential for transportation equipment manufacturing attraction, with a 5.37x concentration and 643 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across transportation equipment manufacturing, fabricated metal product manufacturing, and building material and garden supply retailers creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.