Photo: John Phelan · CC BY 4.0Los Chaves has 0.4 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Only 3% work in Los Chaves; the top destination outside it is Albuquerque (43%, 26 miles). Employers in Los Chaves report 683 jobs for 1,844 working residents. Jobs and income earn Los Chaves B−; getting around on foot earns it D.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Los Chaves
Jobs in Los Chaves have more than doubled in ten years
Jobs based in Los Chaves went from 313 in 2013 to 683 in 2023, +118%. The jobs ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
68% of the jobs in Los Chaves are in trade, transport and utilities, against 20% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
43% of Los Chaves works in Albuquerque
786 working residents, 43%, have their main job in Albuquerque, 27 miles away. That’s 14 times as many as work in Los Chaves itself. The commute map ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Los Chaves
55% of Los Chaves residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 32% of the jobs based in Los Chaves pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 97% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
What’s behind Los Chaves’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Los Chaves is better than 49% of U.S. towns, #16 of 72 in New Mexico. Unemployment holds Los Chaves’ grade up (1.6%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (24.8%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Los Chaves could be anywhere from C− to B+.
What Los Chaves’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Los Chaves, 2013 → 2023: 313 → 683. 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 Los Chaves’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the trip to work from Los Chaves ends
Where Los Chaves clocks in
43% of workers
13% 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.
A workday in Los Chaves: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 1,781 residents head out to work, 63 work right here, and 620 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,700 people are in Los Chaves on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Each way, about 27 minutes from Los Chaves
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Los Chaves workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,848 commuters (the 10% 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.
Miles to work from Los Chaves
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.
Los Chaves is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Los Chaves is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns, #66 of 73 in New Mexico. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.4% across New Mexico.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,059 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 40% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.5% of Los Chaves households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Los Chaves’ commuters take a bus or train.
Los Chaves next to U.S. towns of 3,400 to 6,500: 2,051st of 3,753 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 559 | White Rock NM | 5,716 | $157K | 2.5% | 0.2% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 737 | Placitas NM | 4,223 | $110K | 3.2% | 3.5% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 804 | Los Ranchos de Albuquerque NM | 5,790 | $73K | 8.8% | 0.8% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,049 | Bullskin Township PA | 6,453 | $70K | 8.7% | 4.4% | 6% | B− |
| 2,050 | Theodore AL | 4,964 | $68K | 20.7% | 2.5% | 1% | B− |
| 2,051 | Los Chaves NM | 4,838 | $80K | 24.8% | 1.6% | 3% | B− |
| 2,052 | White Bluff TN | 4,516 | $69K | 10.2% | 4.8% | 6% | B− |
| 2,053 | Montrose Township MI | 5,896 | $76K | 10.3% | 4.2% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,753 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Los Chaves, the top three, the last and three more from New Mexico.
Work next door: 22% of Los Chaves’ workers
The biggest share goes to Los Lunas (13%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Los Chaves workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Chaves | – | B− | D | 27 min | $79,662 |
| Belen | 9% | D | A− | 26 min | $42,627 |
| Tome | under 1% | C+ | D | 22 min | $85,448 |
| Sausal | under 1% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Adelino | under 1% | — | — | 33 min | — |
| Los Lunas | 13% | C | B+ | 26 min | $62,330 |
Same-state neighbors only. Sausal and Adelino: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Los Chaves’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 Los Chaves: questions
What is the median household income in Los Chaves?
$79,662 (±$19,360) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Los Chaves?
24.8%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Los Chaves?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Los Chaves work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Albuquerque (43%, 26 mi), Los Lunas (13%, 5 mi), Belen (9%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Los Chaves walkable?
Los Chaves is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Los Chaves without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Los Chaves, from the people who make the trip.
More of Los Chaves
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.