Hampton County, South Carolina

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 20.7%, 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 23.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 591 workers (27.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $30,216.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $692M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $100,691 while Educational Services averages $25,285, a 4.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 112.06x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 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 2.5x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 73.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 16.4% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,118/mo).

• Low participation: 56.2% 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 20,095 annual credentials.

Hampton County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 112.06x concentration and 154 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The interconnected base across forestry and logging, plastics and rubber products manufacturing, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.