Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Unemployment in Hobbs (6.3%) is higher than in 77% of U.S. towns
2% of workers work from home, against 12% across New Mexico. For jobs and income Hobbs is better than 20% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (B+). More than half stay in Hobbs for work; outside it, Albuquerque is the main destination (5%, 258 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Hobbs
How Hobbs earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Hobbs’ grade up (ahead of 45% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (19.7%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hobbs could be anywhere from D to C+.
How long Hobbs spends getting to work: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hobbs workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 16,907 commuters (the 2% who work from home are left out). Across New Mexico: 84% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who leaves Hobbs for work, and who comes in
On a workday 6,756 residents head out to work, 8,728 work right here, and 11,699 people come in from elsewhere.
About 46,000 people are in Hobbs on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.32 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The places Hobbs commutes to
Where Hobbs clocks in
5% of workers
4% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Factories, building and farms: 33% of the jobs in Hobbs
20,427 jobs are based in Hobbs.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hobbs, 2013 → 2023: 19,615 → 20,427. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Hobbs’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Hobbs goes to work
About 26% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most of Hobbs commutes by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 17,309 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.7% of Hobbs households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Hobbs’ commuters take a bus or train.
Hobbs next to U.S. towns of 29,000 to 55,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 815 | Farmington NM | 46,055 | $69K | 17.4% | 3.9% | 60% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 820 | South Valley NM | 37,120 | $58K | 18.5% | 4.3% | 7% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 888 | Carlsbad NM | 32,524 | $72K | 13.8% | 5.2% | 57% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 943 | Sumter SC | 43,094 | $56K | 16.7% | 6.6% | 31% | C− |
| 944 | Florence AL | 42,581 | $52K | 17.9% | 6.3% | 41% | C− |
| 945 | Hobbs NM | 40,863 | $64K | 19.7% | 6.3% | 56% | C− |
| 946 | Statesville NC | 32,181 | $53K | 20.4% | 6.8% | 28% | C− |
| 947 | Shawnee OK | 32,474 | $56K | 20.8% | 6.0% | 29% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,019 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Hobbs, the top three, the last and three more from New Mexico.
The towns around Hobbs
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hobbs workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hobbs | – | C− | B+ | 24 min | $64,021 |
| North Hobbs | 2% | C | C− | 21 min | $82,554 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to North Hobbs. Darker towns draw more of Hobbs’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Hobbs: questions
What is the median household income in Hobbs?
$64,021 (±$6,762) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hobbs?
19.7%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hobbs?
24 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hobbs work?
56% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Albuquerque (5%, 258 mi), Carlsbad (4%, 67 mi), Lovington (3%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hobbs walkable?
Hobbs is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hobbs without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hobbs, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hobbs
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.