Portales and Roosevelt County Economy: Overview

With a low cost of living, high quality of life and plentiful economic opportunities, Portales/Roosevelt County is an ideal location for your economic endeavors! Portales and Roosevelt County offer a growing yet stable economy based on higher education, renewable energy, livestock, dairy, biofuel, and food production, with growing economic opportunities in professional services, government, and the visitor and retail services sector.

Portales is best-known for its food processing facilities, and the area is home to the nation’s largest USDA certified organic peanut butter plant, the nation’s largest milk balancing and powdered milk plant, the nation’s largest roaster of baseball park peanuts, and the nation’s largest American cheddar cheese plant. Roosevelt County is also home to 40 large dairies, a major wind farm, and hundreds of thousands of affordable land acres that is well-suited for wind, solar and biofuel production.

The working population of Roosevelt County is around 9,700 people, including 2,000 who own their own businesses. The workforce is young, educated, diverse and hard-working. Educated labor is plentiful, as about a third of Portales residents have completed some college, with a whopping 11% holding masters degrees or above. Unemployment is below 4%, one of the best rates in the nation. Average commute time is less than 10 minutes, and Eastern New Mexico University offers low-cost, high-quality educational and cultural opportunities, as well as steady employment.

Economic Overview Quick Facts:

• Wholesale Trade Sales (Roosevelt County) - $53.7 Million
• Retail Trade Sales (Roosevelt County) - $147.1 Million
• Government Spending (Roosevelt County) - $127.4 Million
• Retail Market Demand - $180 million
• Cost of Living - 83% of the US Average