Vilas County, Wisconsin

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Aging population: Median age of 56 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Accommodation and Food Services employs 1,734 workers (33.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $26,519.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Health Care and Social Assistance averages $84,034 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $26,519, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 7.24x 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 4.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 84% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 55.2% 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 (~$1,711/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 38.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 55.4% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Short commutes: 19.5-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 27,191 annual credentials.

Vilas County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 7.24x concentration and 157 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 38.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

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