Wayne County, Ohio

• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 10.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 13,576 workers (36.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $72,460.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Management of Companies and Enterprises averages $136,556 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,082, a 6.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Primary Metal Manufacturing concentrates at 7.01x 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 3.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 76.6% 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 (~$1,839/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 22.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Short commutes: 20.6-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 39,395 annual credentials.

Wayne County shows strong potential for primary metal manufacturing attraction, with a 7.01x concentration and 786 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across primary metal manufacturing, furniture and related product manufacturing, and wood product manufacturing creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.