Regional Economic Relationships

Southeastern New Mexico is a large and diverse region. Its communities differ in size, economic base, geography, infrastructure, workforce characteristics, and development priorities. Chaves, Eddy, Lea, Lincoln, and Otero counties each have distinct identities and economic strengths, and the communities within them maintain their own local leadership, goals, and competitive advantages.

At the same time, the regional economy does not operate within county lines.

Workers commute across jurisdictions. Employers recruit from overlapping labor markets. Transportation corridors connect industries and communities. Energy activity influences construction, professional services, public revenues, housing demand, and workforce needs throughout the region. Agricultural production depends on transportation, water, processing capacity, equipment, and outside markets. Military and federal installations generate demand for technical talent, professional services, housing, education, and infrastructure. Tourism activity moves visitors across multiple communities and supports businesses far beyond the boundaries of any single destination.

These relationships are important because economic conditions in one part of Southeastern New Mexico can create opportunities—or constraints—somewhere else.

A housing shortage in one community may affect an employer's ability to recruit workers in another. A workforce training program located in one county may serve employers throughout the region. Transportation or broadband improvements can strengthen access to markets across multiple communities. Growth in one industry can create demand for suppliers, contractors, service providers, and workers across the entire regional economy.

Understanding these relationships is therefore essential to developing an effective regional strategy.

The purpose of regional economic development is not to replace local decision-making or create a single approach for communities with different needs. Instead, it is to identify the areas where coordination creates additional capacity, improves competitiveness, reduces duplication, and allows communities to address challenges that are difficult to solve independently.

For Southeastern New Mexico, that requires viewing the regional economy as a connected system.

Economic development is often organized locally, but economic activity rarely is.

Businesses make decisions based on access to workers, transportation, utilities, customers, suppliers, capital, and markets. Employees make decisions based on wages, housing, schools, childcare, transportation, quality of life, and access to services. Visitors move between attractions and communities. Supply chains extend well beyond city and county boundaries. Infrastructure systems connect communities whether or not planning processes are coordinated.

As a result, many of the region's most important economic-development issues are shared.

• Workforce availability is regional.
• Housing availability increasingly affects regional competitiveness.
• Transportation and freight movement are regional.
• Broadband and digital connectivity are regional.
• Energy production and supporting industries are regional.
• Water availability and infrastructure reliability have regional consequences.
• Tourism activity is regional.
• Education and workforce development systems serve students and employers across multiple jurisdictions.
• Federal investments and major institutions influence economic activity throughout the region.

This interconnectedness does not mean every community experiences the same conditions. In fact, the opposite is true. Communities may experience growth at different times, face different workforce pressures, or depend on different industry sectors. Regional planning is most effective when it recognizes those differences while also identifying the points at which those economies intersect.

One of the strongest connections among Southeastern New Mexico communities is the movement of people.

Employers do not recruit exclusively within the community where a job is located. Workers routinely evaluate opportunities across a broader geography based on wages, commute times, housing availability, family needs, career advancement, and overall quality of life.

This creates labor sheds that extend beyond municipal and county boundaries.

For employers, this means workforce availability cannot be understood solely through local population counts. A community may have a relatively small resident workforce but still draw employees from surrounding communities. Conversely, a larger population does not guarantee sufficient workers if those workers are commuting elsewhere, leaving the labor force, or lacking the skills required for available positions.

The U.S. Census Bureau's OnTheMap system provides origin-and-destination employment data for specific reference years that can be used to examine where workers live, where they work, and how employment areas overlap. These relationships are particularly important in a geographically large region where employment centers are connected by commuting and business activity.

Select a reference year and geography when examining commute patterns; these are not real-time flows. U.S. Census Bureau · OnTheMap.

The regional labor market is also influenced by the concentration of major employers and industries.

Energy-sector growth can quickly increase demand for skilled trades, equipment operators, engineers, technicians, professional services, transportation workers, and construction labor. Healthcare organizations compete across communities for nurses, technicians, physicians, and support staff. Public-sector employers recruit from many of the same talent pools. Hospitality and tourism employers compete for service workers. Manufacturing and aerospace employers require increasingly specialized technical skills.

These overlapping demands create a labor market in which workforce challenges in one sector can quickly become workforce challenges across multiple industries.

Housing availability, childcare, transportation, wages, training capacity, and quality-of-life conditions therefore become economic-development issues rather than solely community-development issues.

For Southeastern New Mexico, this reinforces the importance of workforce strategies that are coordinated with employers, educational institutions, workforce organizations, and local governments across the region.

The major industry clusters identified within Southeastern New Mexico should not be viewed as isolated sectors.

They are interconnected parts of a broader regional economy.

Energy production, for example, supports activity well beyond extraction itself. It creates demand for construction, transportation, engineering, equipment maintenance, professional services, manufacturing, environmental services, hospitality, retail activity, and public infrastructure.

The scale of that activity is substantial. New Mexico crude oil production reached approximately 2.4 million barrels per day in May 2026, illustrating the continued magnitude of energy production within the state and the economic forces influencing the southeastern portion of New Mexico.

Daily average calculated from 74.359 million barrels for the month ÷ 31 days. Statewide production, not a five-county total. EIA · New Mexico crude oil production.

For Southeastern New Mexico, the significance of energy is not limited to the number of people directly employed in oil and gas. Its effects extend into wages, construction, transportation volumes, public revenue, housing demand, equipment and repair services, engineering, professional services, and small-business activity.

Agriculture contributes not only through production but through transportation, processing, equipment sales and maintenance, veterinary services, water systems, trade, and food-related businesses.

Defense, aerospace, and federal activities support technical occupations, engineering, research, construction, education, cybersecurity, logistics, housing demand, and professional services.

Tourism supports lodging and food service, but it also strengthens retail, outdoor recreation, arts and culture, transportation, events, and small-business activity.

Healthcare serves as both essential community infrastructure and a major regional employer, supporting professional occupations, technical training, construction, technology, and other service industries.

These relationships create multiplier effects: activity in one industry generates additional economic activity throughout the surrounding economy.

For regional strategy, the practical implication is significant.

Economic diversification does not require Southeastern New Mexico to abandon or move away from its strongest industries. Diversification can also occur by strengthening the businesses, suppliers, technologies, occupations, and entrepreneurial opportunities that grow around existing economic strengths.

A strong regional strategy therefore asks not only:

What industries do we have?

It also asks:

What other economic activity can grow because those industries are here?

That question is particularly important for Southeastern New Mexico because the region possesses several economic assets that are difficult to replicate elsewhere: significant energy resources, major agricultural activity, federal and defense installations, established tourism destinations, transportation corridors, educational institutions, and communities with specialized industry knowledge.

The opportunity is to connect those assets more intentionally.

The influence of federal and defense activity provides one of the clearest examples of an economic asset whose impact does not stop at a jurisdictional boundary.

Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range represent nationally significant defense assets connected to employment, contracting, technology, construction, professional services, housing, education, and business activity throughout southern New Mexico.

The U.S. Army reports an estimated $3.7 billion in annual economic impact from White Sands Missile Range across Las Cruces, Doña Ana County, and the surrounding borderland region. Its quick facts also report more than 6,000 civilian employees. These figures describe a wider geography than the five-county SNMEDD district.

Quick facts reviewed September 26, 2026. The page does not specify the estimate’s study year; this is an institutional estimate, not a five-county total. U.S. Army · White Sands Missile Range quick facts.

The strategic value of these installations extends beyond their direct employment.

Their presence creates opportunities related to:

• technical and engineering occupations
• aerospace and defense suppliers
• advanced manufacturing
• research and technology
• cybersecurity
• construction and facilities services
• education and workforce training
• professional and business services; and
• small-business contracting.

These relationships also demonstrate why economic-development strategy should consider institutions as regional anchors rather than isolated employers.

Infrastructure is one of the clearest examples of why economic development must be viewed regionally.

Roadways, rail systems, airports, utilities, broadband networks, water systems, energy infrastructure, and other public assets do not serve only the jurisdiction in which they are physically located.

They connect people and businesses to markets.

Transportation infrastructure is particularly important in Southeastern New Mexico because of the region's size, distance between communities, and concentration of industries that depend heavily on freight movement.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s New Mexico Multimodal Freight Network tables list selected segments of U.S. 285, U.S. 62, and U.S. 70. These routes form important connections through southeastern and southern New Mexico and support the movement of products, equipment, workers, and commercial traffic.

Published route tables, 2015; the designation applies to listed segments. U.S. DOT · New Mexico Multimodal Freight Network tables.

Their economic importance extends beyond transportation.

Energy, agriculture, manufacturing, construction, tourism, retail, and logistics all depend on reliable road systems. Employers depend on those same corridors to connect workers with jobs. Residents rely on them for healthcare, education, shopping, and essential services.

When a transportation corridor experiences congestion, safety concerns, deterioration, or insufficient capacity, the consequences can therefore spread across industries and communities.

Airports similarly support business travel, tourism, federal operations, emergency services, workforce movement, and connections to larger markets.

Broadband infrastructure has become equally important.

Digital connectivity increasingly affects business recruitment, remote work, education, healthcare, public services, entrepreneurship, and the ability of smaller communities to participate in a modern economy.

Utility infrastructure—including water, wastewater, electric capacity, and other systems—can determine whether a community is able to accommodate residential, commercial, or industrial growth.

Because these systems serve broader economic areas, infrastructure planning represents one of the strongest opportunities for regional coordination.

Regional planning can help identify shared priorities, demonstrate broader economic impact, align infrastructure investments with economic-development strategies, and strengthen applications for state and federal funding.

Tourism provides another important example of regional economic relationships.

Visitors rarely experience a region according to jurisdictional boundaries.

They travel highways, purchase fuel, stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, shop in local businesses, visit attractions, and often move among several communities during the same trip.

Southeastern New Mexico benefits from nationally recognized natural and recreational assets capable of bringing outside dollars into local economies.

In 2023, approximately 394,000 visitors to Carlsbad Caverns National Park spent $29.1 million in communities near the park, supporting an estimated 359 local jobs and producing approximately $31.9 million in total local economic benefit.

White Sands National Park provides another example of the economic reach of destination tourism. In 2023, its 729,096 visitors spent $44.5 million in nearby communities, supporting 595 jobs and an estimated $53.4 million in total local economic benefit.

Visitor spending and total economic benefit are different measures. Park-area estimates should not be added as a five-county economic total. National Park Service · Carlsbad Caverns, 2023 visitor spending; National Park Service · White Sands, 2023 visitor spending.

Housing is often addressed as a local issue, but its economic effects are regional.

Employers cannot successfully recruit and retain workers if those workers cannot find housing that meets their needs and budgets.

Rapid economic expansion can place significant pressure on housing supply. Smaller communities may experience limited development capacity. Construction costs, infrastructure needs, land availability, financing conditions, and workforce shortages within the construction industry can further constrain new development.

At the same time, housing needs vary across the workforce.

Entry-level employees, skilled trades workers, teachers, healthcare professionals, families, retirees, military-connected households, and temporary workers may require different housing types and price points.

These conditions affect more than residential development.

Housing availability influences business recruitment, workforce retention, commuting patterns, public-service demand, transportation systems, and quality of life.

Communities with insufficient housing may lose potential workers to neighboring communities or experience longer commuting patterns. Employers may face higher recruitment costs or greater turnover. Infrastructure may need to expand in areas experiencing unexpected residential growth.

For this reason, housing should be treated as part of the region's economic infrastructure.

The same is true for other quality-of-life factors.

Childcare, healthcare access, schools, recreation, public safety, cultural amenities, and community services increasingly influence where workers and families choose to live.

Economic competitiveness is therefore shaped not only by the availability of jobs, but by whether people can realistically build a life in the communities where those opportunities exist.

Southeastern New Mexico benefits from a network of educational institutions, workforce organizations, employers, local governments, and training providers.

These organizations form an important part of the region's economic-development infrastructure.

Community colleges, universities, career and technical education programs, workforce agencies, and employer-based training programs help translate economic opportunity into local employment.

Their effectiveness is greatest when training investments are aligned with actual employer demand.

This requires continuous communication.

Industry needs can change quickly, particularly in regions influenced by energy markets, federal investments, new technologies, large development projects, and changing workforce demographics. Educational institutions require time and resources to develop programs, recruit instructors, purchase equipment, and enroll students. Employers need workers with both technical skills and workplace readiness.

Regional collaboration can help close the gap between those systems.

By sharing employer needs, workforce data, training opportunities, and emerging occupation trends, the region can better align educational capacity with economic demand.

Regional coordination is especially valuable when the number of workers needed in any one community may not be large enough to support a stand-alone training program, but combined regional demand creates sufficient scale.

This is one of the areas where SNMEDD can provide meaningful value by bringing partners together, supporting regional analysis, helping identify funding opportunities, and connecting workforce development to the broader CEDS strategy.

Several institutions within and near Southeastern New Mexico generate economic impacts that extend well beyond their physical locations.

Military installations, federal facilities, educational institutions, healthcare systems, major energy operations, local governments, and large private-sector employers all contribute to regional employment, procurement, infrastructure demand, workforce development, and business opportunities.

These institutions can also serve as anchors for additional economic development.

Their purchasing activity creates opportunities for local suppliers.

Their workforce needs can support specialized education and training.

Their infrastructure investments can create opportunities for surrounding communities.

Their research, technology, and technical capabilities may support entrepreneurship or private-sector innovation.

Their employees contribute to housing demand, retail activity, recreation, and community life.

Regional economic development should therefore consider how communities and businesses can better connect to these anchor institutions.

This may include supplier development, workforce partnerships, infrastructure coordination, small-business assistance, procurement education, or efforts to connect local companies with contracting opportunities.

The region's economic relationships extend well beyond Southeastern New Mexico.

Many of its major industries serve state, national, and global markets.

Energy production connects the region to national and international energy markets.

Agriculture depends on broader commodity markets, transportation networks, export opportunities, and consumer demand.

Tourism brings outside spending into the region.

Federal and defense activities connect Southeastern New Mexico to national priorities and federal investment.

Manufacturers and service companies may support clients across New Mexico, Texas, and beyond.

The proximity of Southeastern New Mexico to major Texas markets also creates important economic relationships.

Communities within the region compete for workers, businesses, investment, and consumers across state lines. Supply chains routinely extend into neighboring markets. Workers may live in one state and work in another. Businesses evaluate infrastructure, taxes, workforce availability, regulatory environments, and development incentives across jurisdictions rather than limiting their decisions to a single state.

This makes regional competitiveness particularly important.

Southeastern New Mexico is not competing only with other communities in New Mexico.

It is competing within a broader economic geography.

Regional coordination can help the area present its assets more effectively, identify shared infrastructure needs, strengthen workforce capacity, and pursue economic opportunities with greater scale.

Regional collaboration does not require communities to give up local priorities, local leadership, or local identity.

Successful regional economic development depends on strong communities.

Each county and municipality must continue identifying and advancing the projects that matter most locally.

The role of regional collaboration is different.

It is to recognize when communities share a challenge, depend on the same system, compete within the same labor market, or could accomplish more by working together.

Some economic-development projects will always be local.

A downtown redevelopment effort may primarily serve one community.

A specific industrial-site improvement may benefit one municipality.

A local housing development may address a community-specific need.

Other issues are inherently regional.

• Workforce pipelines.
• Transportation systems.
• Broadband connectivity.
• Industry diversification.
• Major infrastructure funding.
• Regional marketing.
• Supply-chain development.
• Economic resilience.
• Data collection.
• Long-term planning.

The strength of the regional approach lies in knowing the difference.

SNMEDD is uniquely positioned to support these regional relationships.

Its role is not to replace local governments, economic-development organizations, employers, workforce agencies, educational institutions, or other implementation partners.

Instead, SNMEDD can help connect those organizations.

The District can serve as a regional convener, planning partner, technical resource, funding navigator, and coordinator for projects that cross jurisdictional or organizational boundaries.

That role may include:

• convening regional partners around shared economic issues
• identifying common infrastructure and workforce priorities
• supporting grant development and funding coordination
• maintaining regional economic and demographic data
• helping communities connect projects to state and federal programs
• supporting communication among local governments and partner organizations
• identifying opportunities for multi-jurisdictional projects
• tracking implementation of the CEDS; and
• maintaining a regional perspective as economic conditions change.

This role becomes increasingly important when communities face challenges that are too large, too complex, or too interconnected for any one organization to address alone.

The economic relationships described throughout this section lead to an important conclusion:

Southeastern New Mexico's economic future will be shaped locally, but many of its greatest opportunities will be strengthened regionally.

The region does not need a single economic-development strategy that treats every community the same.

It needs a shared framework that allows communities to pursue local priorities while coordinating around the systems they have in common.

The evidence throughout the region points to several particularly important relationships:

These relationships provide the foundation for the strategic priorities that follow.

The regional framework should strengthen Southeastern New Mexico's ability to:

• Connect workers to opportunity.
• Connect employers to talent.
• Connect industries to suppliers and emerging markets.
• Connect communities to infrastructure and funding.
• Connect educational institutions to workforce demand.
• Connect visitors to more of the region.
• Connect local projects to regional priorities.
• Connect short-term growth with long-term resilience.

The goal is not regionalization for the sake of regionalization.

The goal is greater capacity.

Better coordination.

Stronger competitiveness.

And a regional economy that is more prepared to respond to both opportunity and disruption.

Southeastern New Mexico is not a collection of five separate county economies.

It is a network of communities, industries, institutions, infrastructure, and people whose economic futures are increasingly interconnected.

The opportunity ahead is not to erase local identity or local leadership.

It is to recognize where working together allows the region to accomplish more.