CEDSSummary Background People & Communities
Workforce
Follow how residents reach jobs, how labor-force conditions differ, and where employers and skills connect.
Understanding Who We Are Workforce
What This Chapter Tells Us
Workforce is a relationship between residents, employers, places, and the systems that connect them. A job may be available but difficult to reach; a common occupation may serve several industries; and a large employer may shape a local training network. The evidence here brings those pieces together.
Read each measure with its date and unit. Commuting describes resident workers, unemployment describes the civilian labor force, occupations describe kinds of work, and the employer lists are historical planning snapshots rather than a current ranking. The 2020–2024 ACS labor-force figures below provide a consistently dated context; they are five-year survey estimates, not today's monthly labor conditions.
Commuting to Work
This historical planning comparison shows how resident workers reported reaching their jobs and how long the average commute took; its reference year is not documented. Travel mode does not show whether a person crosses a county line or has a reliable alternative.
Travel Modes Across the Region
The first chart shows the share of workers in each county who are reported as driving alone, carpooling, walking, using another mode, or working from home. Each county is its own 100% comparison. Choose a category to highlight it across all five counties, or keep all categories visible to see the full mix. Percentages are rounded, so a row may total slightly less or more than 100%.
Driving alone is the largest category everywhere, from 73% in Lincoln to 82% in Eddy and Chaves. Lea has the highest reported carpool share at 17%; Lincoln has the highest reported work-from-home share at 13%. The “Other” category does not separate transit, biking, and other possibilities, so the chart cannot establish whether a particular service is available or used.
View the Exact Travel-Mode Shares
| County | Drive Alone | Carpool | Walk | Other | Work From Home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lea | 77% | 17% | 1% | 1% | 4% |
| Eddy | 82% | 9% | 1% | 1% | 6% |
| Otero | 78% | 12% | 3% | 1% | 6% |
| Chaves | 82% | 9% | 2% | 1% | 5% |
| Lincoln | 73% | 11% | 1% | 2% | 13% |
Drive Alone
The largest reported category in all five counties. This share signals how important reliable road and vehicle access may be for reaching work.
Carpool in Lea
Lea has the highest reported carpool share. The figure does not show trip distance, employer programs, or why workers ride together.
Work From Home in Lincoln
Lincoln has the highest reported share. One snapshot does not establish that remote work is growing or that all jobs can be done from home.
Time Spent Traveling to Work
The second chart compares reported average travel time to work, in minutes, on the same zero-based scale. Lea has the highest county average at 25.3 minutes and Chaves the lowest at 18.6 minutes—a 6.7-minute difference. Select Highest First or Lowest First to change the order; the values beside the bars do not change.
A county average can help identify where longer travel deserves investigation, but it does not reveal individual commute burdens, distance traveled, congestion, or whether workers cross county lines. Read it beside the travel-mode chart: a high driving share and a longer average trip raise useful questions about road reliability, job location, and transportation options, but neither measure identifies a cause on its own.
Compare the Evidence
Average Travel Time to Work
Choose a measure and comparison order to explore the values. Bars start at zero; values remain visible beside every bar.
Average Commute (Minutes) · A consistent zero-based scale makes the differences visible.
Reference year not specified. These county averages are historical context, not current travel-time estimates. An average does not show the range of individual journeys or whether workers cross county lines.
View All Values in a Table
| Area / Organization | Average Commute (Minutes) |
|---|---|
| Lea | 25.3 |
| Otero | 22.8 |
| Lincoln | 21.2 |
| Eddy | 19.9 |
| Chaves | 18.6 |
Labor Force and Employment
Compare labor-force participation and unemployment with a consistent five-county ACS period. Participation uses residents age 16 and older; unemployment uses the civilian labor force. Neither describes every form of underemployment.
Participation and Unemployment Are Different Questions
In the 2020–2024 ACS, labor-force participation ranges from 51.8% of residents age 16 and older in Lincoln to 62.1% in Eddy. The ACS unemployment share ranges from 5.0% in Chaves to 8.6% in Otero, but uses the civilian labor force rather than all residents age 16 and older.
Use these five-year survey estimates to compare county structure, not to describe current monthly labor conditions. Monthly workforce data, employer vacancies, wages, and the reasons residents do or do not enter the labor force are needed for an active hiring or training decision.
| County | Labor-Force Participation | ACS Unemployment |
|---|---|---|
| Chaves | 55.8% | 5.0% |
| Eddy | 62.1% | 5.5% |
| Lea | 61.4% | 6.9% |
| Lincoln | 51.8% | 5.1% |
| Otero | 56.0% | 8.6% |
ACS table B23025. Participation is civilian labor force plus Armed Forces divided by residents age 16 and older; unemployment is unemployed civilians divided by the civilian labor force. These definitions and survey periods differ from monthly state labor reports.
Top Occupations by Industry
Explore where occupation groups appear across the five counties and how similar skills can serve different industries. This historical analysis is a starting point for validating today's vacancies and training needs.
Compare the Five Counties
The seven rows collect every occupation group that appears in at least one county’s top-five panel. Select a county to bring its listed groups forward. A colored dot means inclusion in that historical panel; a dash means the group was not among that county’s five shown. A dash does not mean the occupation is absent from the county.
Where the Occupation Groups Appear
Historical Purdue county panels · 2001–2021
Showing all five county panels. Three groups appear in every one.
| Occupation Group | Chaves | Eddy | Lea | Lincoln | Otero |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office & Administrative Support5 of 5 County Panels | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Sales & Related5 of 5 County Panels | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Management5 of 5 County Panels | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Transportation & Material Moving4 of 5 County Panels | ● | ● | ● | — | ● |
| Construction & Extraction3 of 5 County Panels | — | ● | ● | ● | — |
| Food Preparation & Serving2 of 5 County Panels | ● | — | — | ● | — |
| Military-Only1 of 5 County Panels | — | — | — | — | ● |
Presence in a top-five panel is a useful way to see overlap. It does not show how many people work in a group, the share of county employment, the order of the five groups, wages, or today’s vacancies.
How Occupations Connect to Industries
The same occupation can support very different employers. Purdue’s inverse staffing examples help translate the county panels into a more practical question: where might a skill be used, and which parts of that skill need industry-specific training?
Service and Coordination Work
Office support, sales, and management appear in all five county panels. The report connects them with local government, schools, physician offices, retail, agriculture, hospitality, and oil-and-gas services, depending on the county.
Planning use: Build transferable communication, customer service, administrative, and operations skills, then add the rules and tools of the specific employer.
Energy, Construction, and Logistics
Construction and extraction appears in Eddy, Lea, and Lincoln; transportation and material moving appears in four counties. In Eddy and Lea, the report names oil-and-gas support, pipeline construction, and freight. In Lincoln, construction examples include homes and site preparation.
Planning use: Validate which certifications, equipment skills, safety practices, and driving credentials employers actually require. The same broad occupation label can lead to different jobs.
Hospitality and Military Work
Food preparation and serving appears in the Chaves and Lincoln panels, with restaurant, hotel, and casino examples. Otero’s panel uniquely includes a military-only occupation group, tied to federal military activity.
Planning use: Treat these as distinct pathways. Hospitality skills, federal hiring requirements, and civilian support roles should not be collapsed into one training response.
Major Employers
Review five county profiles from a historical employer inventory. Treat the names as possible partnership leads, then confirm current operations, employment, and hiring needs directly.
The employer list is a lens on local institutions and possible partnerships, rather than a complete labor-market count. Explore the counties separately: every bar uses that county’s largest exact value as its own scale. Reported figures are historical, and the underlying list does not identify a year.
Lea County
The listed employers show a county economy supported by public schools, local government, health care, and private activity. Hobbs Schools is the largest organization in this historical list. Read these as individual employer snapshots, not as a count of all jobs in Lea County.
Employers in the Historical Profile
Reported employment · longest bar = largest exact figure listed for Lea County
- Hobbs Schools1,014
- City of Hobbs466
- Nor Lea Hospital453
- Lovington Schools392
- Lea Regional Hospital340
- Ferguson Construction330
- Lea County301
- State of New Mexico262
- Lea County Correctional247
- Zia Racetrack and Casino237
Eddy County
The Eddy County list places a federal energy facility and potash producers alongside schools, health care, and local government. It shows why workforce planning here must connect specialized industrial skills with everyday community services. The bars compare employers within this county only.
Employers in the Historical Profile
Reported employment · longest bar = largest exact figure listed for Eddy County
- Waste Isolation Pilot Plant1,200
- Intrepid Potash800
- Carlsbad Schools686
- US Government686
- Navajo Refinery650
- Carlsbad Medical Center446
- City of Carlsbad437
- Artesia Schools426
- Mosaic Potash420
- Eddy County385
Otero County
Federal and civilian activity at Holloman Air Force Base leads this historical Otero County list. Education, health care, public agencies, and retail also appear, showing several kinds of demand for local workers. The base and the generic government entries may use different reporting boundaries, so their figures should not be added together.
Employers in the Historical Profile
Reported employment · longest bar = largest exact figure listed for Otero County
- Holloman Air Force Base (Civilian)1,270
- Alamogordo Schools661
- Gerald Champion Medical Center650
- Trax Int.500
- State of New Mexico464
- US Government436
- City of Alamogordo320
- Walmart275
- Otero County260
- NMSU–Alamogordo188
Chaves County
Chaves County's list brings together state government, Roswell schools, food production, medical care, and local services. Those different anchors suggest opportunities to connect training and supplier development across sectors. The list describes selected large employers, not the full composition of county employment.
Employers in the Historical Profile
Reported employment · longest bar = largest exact figure listed for Chaves County
- State of New Mexico1,198
- Roswell Schools1,030
- Leprino Foods600
- City of Roswell555
- Eastern New Mexico Medical Center522
- New Mexico Military Institute330
- Community Healthcare287
- Walmart275
- Chaves County268
- Krumland Auto Group253
Lincoln County
Lincoln County's listed employers are smaller in scale and more varied in function: health care, government, retail, visitor services, and hospitality all appear. Two entries are reported as ranges rather than exact counts. This is a reminder that a regional strategy needs county-specific measures of capacity, not one employment threshold for every place.
Employers in the Historical Profile
Reported employment · longest bar = largest exact figure listed for Lincoln County
- Walmart275
- Lincoln County Medical Center245
- State of New Mexico198
- Town of Ruidoso185
- Ruidoso Downs Race Track173
- Lincoln County124
- US Government94
- Town of Ruidoso Downs53
- Lodge at Sierra Blanca50–99
- Cattle Baron Steakhouse50–99
Two employers were reported as 50–99 employees. Their ranges are displayed without proportional bars.
What the Evidence Means
Key Insights
These are regional planning implications, not claims about any individual resident or a project already delivered.
Access Is Part of the Labor Market
Driving alone is the largest mode in the CEDS planning comparison, although its reference year is not stated. Reliable vehicles, distances, schedules, and alternatives can determine whether residents can use a job or training opportunity.
One Rate Cannot Describe the Workforce
The 2020–2024 ACS estimates labor-force participation from 51.8% in Lincoln to 62.1% in Eddy among residents age 16 and older. Unemployment uses a different denominator; wages, openings, and underemployment add other essential context.
Skills Cross Industry Boundaries
Office, sales, management, and service occupations appear in more than one industry and county. Training partnerships can build portable skills while adding the technical requirements of energy, healthcare, construction, tourism, and other local sectors.
Use Employer Lists as Conversations
The five county employer profiles identify possible anchors for work-based learning and local purchasing, but the source year is not stated. Verify each employer and ask about current needs before treating a historical list as a live ranking.