Custer County, Colorado

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by -8.0 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 58 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 165 workers (39.4% of the top displayed sectors), at an average wage of $35,355.
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $118,647 while Other Services (except Public Administration) averages $32,351, a 3.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 4.65x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 4 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.4x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 85.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 42.3% vacancy rate; potential opportunity for redevelopment or repositioning.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,817/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 40.8% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Strong participation: 75.8% labor force participation among working-age residents indicates an engaged, available workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 6 local institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 25,233 annual credentials.

Custer County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 4.65x concentration and 32 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 40.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across gasoline stations and fuel dealers, food and beverage retailers, and specialty trade contractors creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.

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