Blount County, Tennessee

• 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 7.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• 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 9,183 workers (20.7% of the top displayed sectors), at an average wage of $77,677.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $9.1B (2024) with per-capita income of $63,260.
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $91,950 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $28,896, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Transportation Equipment Manufacturing concentrates at 7.85x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 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 4.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 77.0% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 10.2% vacancy rate; potential opportunity for redevelopment or repositioning.

• Succession risk is real: 25.0% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Strong participation: 85.4% 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 17,588 annual credentials.

Blount County shows strong potential for transportation equipment manufacturing attraction, with a 7.85x concentration and 5,108 jobs in this sub-sector, it ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.0% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across transportation equipment manufacturing, sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and misc. retailers, and rental and leasing services creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.

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