Photo: Artotem from Here, There, and... · CC BY 2.0Pecos has 0.3 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs & income C+: better than 40% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability B+: more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are higher than in 66% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 42 minutes each way (New Mexico 24, U.S. 26). Only 4% work in Pecos; the top destination outside it is Santa Fe (36%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Pecos
Pecos workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 42 minutes each way, against 24 across New Mexico. Over a year that’s about 322 hours of commuting, 138 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
36% of Pecos works in Santa Fe
106 working residents, 36%, have their main job in Santa Fe, 18 miles away. That’s 9 times as many as work in Pecos itself. The commute map ↓
Pecos is a place people come home to
There are 80 jobs based in Pecos, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
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; with 298 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Pecos’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Pecos is better than 40% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Pecos’ grade up ($88,490, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (7.0%) is left out: Pecos’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Pecos could be anywhere from D− to B+.
About 42 minutes each way, longer than most of New Mexico
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 13.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pecos workers work from home, vs 12% across New Mexico. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 358 commuters (the 19% 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.
36% of working residents work in Santa Fe
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Pecos clocks in
36% of workers
14% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Pecos quiets down on a workday
On a workday 287 residents head out to work, 11 work right here, and 69 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Pecos on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.27 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
What the 80 jobs in Pecos are
80 jobs are based in Pecos. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Pecos’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pecos, 2013 → 2023: 295 → 80. 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.
Half of Pecos commutes less than 25 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 37% 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.
Most trips from Pecos start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pecos is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.4% across New Mexico, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 440 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). 3.7% of Pecos households have no vehicle (New Mexico 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pecos’ commuters take a bus or train.
Pecos is 2,639th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Pecos, the top three, the last and three more from New Mexico.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 826 | Santa Ana Pueblo NM | 1,026 | $86K | 5.5% | 2.9% | 19% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 892 | Little Walnut Village NM | 1,445 | $125K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,038 | Mesilla NM | 1,818 | $75K | 4.5% | 6.8% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,637 | Mediapolis IA | 1,660 | $76K | 9.7% | 1.9% | 15% | C+ |
| 2,638 | Sebree KY | 1,546 | $59K | 6.9% | 0.5% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,639 | Pecos NM | 1,375 | $88K | 9.7% | 7.0% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,640 | Meade Center Township KS | 1,674 | $75K | 6.1% | 0.0% | 36% | C+ |
| 2,641 | Plymouth ME | 1,328 | $62K | 6.5% | 2.7% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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.
Pecos and the towns next door
Darker towns draw more of Pecos’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Pecos workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pecos | – | C+ | B+ | 42 min | $88,490 |
| East Pecos | under 2% | — | — | 19 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. East Pecos: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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 Pecos: questions
What is the median household income in Pecos?
$88,490 (±$68,478) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $64,059 across New Mexico and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pecos?
9.7%, against 17.8% across New Mexico and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pecos?
42 minutes each way on average, against 24 across New Mexico and 26 nationally. 19% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pecos work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Fe (36%, 18 mi), Albuquerque (14%, 64 mi), Los Alamos (5%, 41 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pecos walkable?
Pecos is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pecos without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pecos, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pecos
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.