Union County, New Mexico

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $17,365 (27.1%) under the New Mexico median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 7.8% below the national average, so the nominal median of $46,694 is worth $50,644 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.6%, 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 17.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 43 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 170 workers (28.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $48,158. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 425 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $178M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Real Estate and Rental and Leasing averages $123,834 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $18,352, a 6.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 31.17x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 29.6% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.6x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 72.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 31.6% of housing units are vacant, above the New Mexico rate of 12.5%, and down from 40.6% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 25.3% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 8.6% of the vacant stock, or 2.7% of all housing units against the 31.6% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $32,575 can pay without cost burden (~$814/mo), and 25.4% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.4% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 44.1% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 7.5% between 2019 and 2024, from 1,538 to 1,423.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Union County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Union County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 31.17x concentration and 50 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.4% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and accommodation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 29.6% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.