Jobs Plunge in Intel’s Rio Rancho Zip Code

  BY DENNIS DOMRZALSKI While Intel Corp. continues to remain silent on the fate of its Rio Rancho plant, one thing that's clear is that the facility's downsizing has already cost Rio Rancho thousands of jobs and lost income. And the zip code in which the facility sits, has borne the brunt of the economic damage. In 2006, when Intel employed more than 5,000 people in Rio Rancho, the 87124 zip code had 22,057 employees and an annual payroll of $980.2 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2014, the number of employees in the zip code had fallen to 13,060 and the annual payroll had shrunk to $509.4 million. And when a job is lost at Intel, another 1.5 to 2 service sector jobs are lost throughout the community, said economic development expert Mark Lautman. That's because the jobs at Intel are considered economic base jobs, meaning 60 percent of the protect they produce is sold outside the state. Every economic base job creates jobs in the service sector. The sales from economic base jobs bring new money into the state, and loading up on export jobs is the only way a community can grow its economy, Lautman said. While the number of jobs in the zip code have declined steadily since peaking at 22,000 in 2006, the annual payroll has fluctuated, sometimes significantly. In 20011, the payroll totaled $864.6 million. The following year it fell to $549 million, and it 2013 it climbed back up to $934.5 million. But overall, the annual payroll has steadily fallen over the years from its 2006 peak.

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