Upshur County, West Virginia

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 19.2%, 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 17.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 42 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 1,106 workers (26.6% of the top displayed sectors), at an average wage of $36,081.
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $66,740 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $19,743, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 23.18x 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 3.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 80.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.3% 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 (~$1,358/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 23.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Talent pipeline: 6 local institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 23,338 annual credentials.

Upshur County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 23.18x concentration and 473 jobs in this sub-sector, it ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across wood product manufacturing, forestry and logging, and telecommunications creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.

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