Grant County, Washington

• Elevated poverty: At 15.8%, 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 17.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 34 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 4,570 workers (21% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $77,888.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $8.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $153,823 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $27,274, a 5.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 47.58x 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.
• 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 4.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 12% 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 (~$1,832/mo).

• 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.

Grant County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 47.58x concentration and 6,841 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

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