Waukesha County, Wisconsin

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 13.2 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 41,856 workers (20.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $86,700.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $42B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $122,717 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,741, a 5.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Electrical Equipment, Appliance Manufacturing concentrates at 8.55x 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 3.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 76% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$2,652/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 27,191 annual credentials.

Waukesha County shows strong potential for electrical equipment, appliance manufacturing attraction, with a 8.55x concentration and 5,905 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across electrical equipment, appliance manufacturing, printing and related support activities, and machinery manufacturing creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.