Rockingham County, Virginia

• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 6.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 6,372 workers (24.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $67,806.
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $87,982 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $26,296, a 3.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Food Manufacturing concentrates at 10.27x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• 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: 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 3.9x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 75.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 10.6% 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: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$2,017/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 22.9% 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 45,868 annual credentials.

Rockingham County shows strong potential for food manufacturing attraction, with a 10.27x concentration and 4,089 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across food manufacturing, warehousing and storage, and animal production and aquaculture creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.