Oldham County, Texas

• 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 14.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 31 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 54 workers (43.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $28,805.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $404M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $78,847 while Retail Trade averages $28,805, a 2.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 61.33x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 4 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 2.0x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 73.6% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 20.9% 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 (~$1,998/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 48,998 annual credentials.

Oldham County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 61.33x concentration and 96 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The interconnected base across animal production and aquaculture, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and support activities for agriculture and forestry creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.