Lee County, Mississippi

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.6%, the rate is in distressed-county territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 7.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 10,103 workers (23.2% of the top displayed sectors), at an average wage of $53,818.
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $95,091 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $19,352, a 4.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing concentrates at 29.02x 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 70.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 13.4% 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 (~$1,697/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Strong participation: 82.4% labor force participation among working-age residents indicates an engaged, available workforce.
• Short commutes: 20.8-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 6 local institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 15,791 annual credentials.

Lee County shows strong potential for furniture and related product manufacturing attraction, with a 29.02x concentration and 3,382 jobs in this sub-sector, it ranks in the top decile nationally.

The interconnected base across furniture and related product manufacturing, plastics and rubber products manufacturing, and paper manufacturing creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.

Community Data Widgets
That Actually Impress

Embed premium dashboards that make site selectors stop scrolling. 20+ federal sources. Dark, light, and brand themes. One script tag. Included with CRM or standalone.