Sandoval County faces $3.11 billion payroll leakage, chamber warns commissioners

Nearly 47,399 Sandoval County workers leave the county for their jobs, and the chamber says that commute pattern drains more than $3.11 billion in annual payroll from the local economy.

Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jerry Schalow laid out the estimate to the Sandoval County Commission on April 8, arguing that the county’s growth has not yet produced enough local jobs and businesses to keep more paychecks circulating in Rio Rancho, Bernalillo and the rest of the county. Schalow said the county workforce is about 71,000 people, but most of them work elsewhere, usually in Albuquerque.

The impact, he said, goes beyond a longer drive. Using a median annual income of about $79,900 and a median household income of $99,556, Schalow estimated that more than $3.11 billion leaves Sandoval County each year in payroll, along with a few million dollars in gross receipts tax tied to workday spending. He also pointed to the fact that 14.4% of households receive SNAP benefits, a sign that many families are already balancing tight budgets before they spend outside the county.

Schalow’s central point was that Sandoval County still does not have enough local business depth to absorb its own labor force. He said the county is short 1,671 businesses compared with Albuquerque on a population basis. Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance data show Sandoval County had 4,543 businesses in 2024, with major activity in education, health care and social services, accommodation and food services, and retail. That leaves room for more local options, from daily services to retail and dining, that could keep more money close to home instead of sending it south each day.

The numbers also show how quickly the market is growing. The county had 148,834 residents in the 2020 Census, and the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that population rose to 157,757 on July 1, 2024 and 159,565 on July 1, 2025. Roughly 33.8% of adults age 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher, giving Sandoval County a trained workforce that could support more employers if the right jobs were here.

Schalow also said 7,394 young people and recent graduates have left in the past four years for jobs in Texas, California, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada. That kind of outmigration means Sandoval County is not only exporting paychecks, it is exporting talent. NMSU’s Arrowhead Center has described the county economy through basic industry theory, which holds that income-producing businesses fuel the local market while non-basic businesses serve residents. By that measure, Schalow’s message was clear: Sandoval County has the customers, the workers and the spending power. It still needs more of the businesses that turn those numbers into jobs, storefronts and tax revenue at home.