Caledonia County, Vermont

• Aging population: Median age of 46 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 2,035 workers (28.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $66,873.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $95,670 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $25,781, a 3.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing concentrates at 4.27x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 10 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 79.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 19% 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 (~$1,749/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 25.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 5,964 annual credentials.

Caledonia County shows meaningful potential for furniture and related product manufacturing attraction, with a 4.27x concentration and 102 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

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