Chelan County, Washington

• Broadly in line with U.S. norms across income, poverty, and education.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 7,441 workers (27.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $79,919.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $7.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $86,518 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $32,460, a 2.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Support Activities for Agriculture and Forestry concentrates at 33.98x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 7 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.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.9x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 18.5% 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 (~$2,060/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 22.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Short commutes: 20.2-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 28,545 annual credentials.

Chelan County shows strong potential for support activities for agriculture and forestry attraction, with a 33.98x concentration and 3,703 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across support activities for agriculture and forestry, crop production, and beverage and tobacco product manufacturing creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.