Cherokee County, South Carolina

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 18.4%, 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 17.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 5,082 workers (34.4% of the top displayed sectors), at an average wage of $62,792.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.3B (2024) with per-capita income of $43,456.
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $72,963 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,125, a 3.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Textile Mills concentrates at 102.87x 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.8x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 73.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.3% vacancy rate; potential opportunity for redevelopment or repositioning.
• Affordable rent tiers: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,257/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 22.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Strong participation: 75.4% 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 20,095 annual credentials.

Cherokee County shows strong potential for textile mills attraction, with a 102.87x concentration and 1,018 jobs in this sub-sector, it ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across textile mills, plastics and rubber products manufacturing, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.

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