Chaves County experiences job growth in Roswell

CHAVES COUNTY, N.M. – Earlier this month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced New Mexico’s unemployment rate was 3.5% – the lowest we’ve seen in a long time, even pre-pandemic.        

“What’s really important is that our city in our county are working so well together,” said Lujan Grisham. 

Mike Espiritu is the executive director of the Roswell-Chaves County Economic Development Corporation. He says job growth has been taking off there lately.

“We are seeing a lot of great activity, we’re going to continue to see the retail sector, the service sector, continue to grow as well to support those companies,” said Espiritu.

Lujan Grisham also announced the state has the highest number of jobs in history right now, and that job growth is in rural areas too, like Chaves County. 

“They received some JTIP funding from the state to pay for reimbursement for training. They’re up to about 140 employees, when I first got here in Roswell, they’re down, like around 70,” Espiritu said.

He says the aviation sector has seen the most growth with new companies moving to, or considering Roswell for a new shop.

The relationship between area schools has been a close one, getting people trained for the jobs moving in.

“We’re very, very happy about our relationship because with them doing that we can be supportive, attractive to a company with some type of workforce plan in place to help create that talent for tomorrow,” said Espiritu. 

His office has more planned, but Espiritu says he hopes Roswell will soon be known in the aviation world for more than just UFO’s.