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The Work: Jobs, Careers, and Suppliers

Work close to home.

For many Lewis County families, work is somewhere else. A 38.6-minute average commute is not just a statistic.

Baseline economics

Where the county starts

Verified public fact

Measure

Lewis County

Kentucky

United States

Source and period

Median household incomeWhat this measures: the middle income of all households, counting everyone living in a home together.

$46,838

$63,726

$80,734

American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024. Lewis County margin of error ±$5,284

Per capita incomeWhat this measures: total income divided by every resident, including children.

$26,242

—

$44,673

American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024

Labor-force participationWhat this measures: the share of adults working or looking for work. Fewer than half of adults here are in the labor force.

48.3%

—

—

American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024

High school or higherWhat this measures: adults 25 and older with at least a high school diploma or equivalent.

80.4%

—

—

American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024

Mean commuteWhat this measures: average one-way travel time to work.

38.6 min

—

26.4 min

American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024

PovertyWhat this measures: the share of residents in households below the federal poverty line.

22.2%

—

—

American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024

Construction is among the top industries residents work in, alongside health care and manufacturing.

Construction benchmarks

Results from a two-unit project in Georgia

Results from another project, not forecasts

9,000+peak workers at Vogtle Units 3 and 4 (Bechtel)

70Mabout 70 million work hours (Bechtel)

800permanent jobs (U.S. Department of Energy)

30%+of hires were veterans and reservists (Bechtel)

These are results from a two-unit project in Georgia. Prosperity One’s workforce would depend on design, schedule, phasing and factory-built content. We will publish an estimate when we can defend it.

Pay

National median pay

Verified public fact

$133,970nuclear engineers

$122,890nuclear power reactor operators

$110,240nuclear technicians

$50,980all occupations

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, national median annual wages, May 2025. These are individual wages, not household income.

Training paths

Ways in

Careers and training paths

High school

Lewis County Schools career and technical programs.

College

Maysville Community and Technical College: industrial maintenance, electrical and welding.

Trades

Trades apprenticeships.

Veterans

Routes for veterans and reservists.

A larger local tax base

We are not publishing an estimate today.

Kentucky’s Department of Revenue values power plants each year and distributes that value to the county, school district and other local taxing districts. Some plant equipment is taxed only by the state, and new school property-tax revenue is partly offset in the state’s school-funding formula.

Because the result depends on design, classification and agreements not yet made, we are not publishing an estimate today. We will publish our method, assumptions and a range for the school district and Fiscal Court to review.

Historical benchmark

Burke County, Georgia, home of Plant Vogtle

Vogtle and other utilities made up about $17.5 billion of a $19.6 billion 2023 tax digest. After Unit 3 entered the digest, the school board gained more than $21 million while cutting its rate from 12.5 to 11.75 mills.

It cuts both ways. In July 2026, Georgia’s Department of Revenue cut Vogtle’s taxable value by about $2.8 billion after a Georgia Power filing error. That cost the county about $6 million and schools about $12 million.

Suppliers

Local businesses

At launch we are taking interest sign-ups only. Registering does not guarantee any work.

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