Lehigh County, Pennsylvania

• Broadly in line with U.S. norms across income, poverty, and education.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 51,784 workers (32.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $78,615.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $31.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Management of Companies and Enterprises averages $164,868 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $25,669, a 6.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 4.86x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.
• Attraction whitespace: 6 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 3.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$2,002/mo).

• Talent pipeline: 6 local institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 5,543 annual credentials.

Lehigh County shows meaningful potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 4.86x concentration and 2,090 jobs in this sub-sector.

The interconnected base across beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, warehousing and storage, and hospitals creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.