Johnston County, Oklahoma

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 22.9%, 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 15.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 594 workers (36.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $43,760.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $591M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Administrative and Support and Waste Management averages $118,323 while Retail Trade averages $31,035, a 3.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Mining (except Oil and Gas) concentrates at 72.00x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.2x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 72.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 17.4% 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: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,317/mo).

• Low participation: 52% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 16,669 annual credentials.

Johnston County shows strong potential for mining (except oil and gas) attraction, with a 72.00x concentration and 264 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The interconnected base across mining (except oil and gas), animal production and aquaculture, and ambulatory health care services creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.