Ottawa 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 20.9%, 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 20.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 1,252 workers (24.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $36,753.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.4B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Transportation and Warehousing averages $67,144 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,260, a 3.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing concentrates at 4.59x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 6 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.
• Attraction whitespace: 7 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.5x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 13% 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 (~$1,249/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Low participation: 56.2% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• 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 16,669 annual credentials.

Ottawa County shows meaningful potential for plastics and rubber products manufacturing attraction, with a 4.59x concentration and 266 jobs in this sub-sector.

The interconnected base across plastics and rubber products manufacturing, crop production, and printing and related support activities creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.