Chaves County, New Mexico

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 24.3%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 17.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 3,895 workers (25.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $48,166.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages $112,493 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $22,379, a 5.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Oil and Gas Extraction concentrates at 19.49x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 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 3.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 71.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 11.7% vacancy rate. In resort, rural, and seasonal markets much of this is recreational/seasonal (second homes), not available supply; confirm the vacancy-by-reason split before treating it as a redevelopment opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,323/mo).

• Low participation: 58% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Short commutes: 19.3-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 16,649 annual credentials.

Chaves County shows strong potential for oil and gas extraction attraction, with a 19.49x concentration and 319 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The interconnected base across oil and gas extraction, animal production and aquaculture, and pipeline transportation creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.