Union County, Pennsylvania

• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 9.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 2,060 workers (24.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $34,533.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $78,050 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $22,940, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 12.73x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 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 3.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 72.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 10.2% 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 (~$1,910/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Low participation: 50.8% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Short commutes: 17.9-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 33,866 annual credentials.

Union County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 12.73x concentration and 569 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The interconnected base across wood product manufacturing, machinery manufacturing, and nursing and residential care facilities creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.