Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
Table 48. Annual employment
County
2000 2010
Number in Employment
Numeric
Change
Percent Change
2000-2010
Cibola 8,703 8,582 -121 -1.4
McKinley 21,940 23,602 1,662 7.6
Totals 30,643 32,184 1,541 5.0
New Mexico 763,116 888,398 125,282 16.4
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 and 2010
Unemployment Rates
The unemployment rate is defined as the number of unemployed persons divided by the labor
force, where the labor force is the number of unemployed persons plus the number of employed
persons. McKinley County has an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, the highest it has been since
2000, though still consistent with a rate above that of the State for the same interval. Conversely,
in 2010 Cibola County’s 7.3 unemployment rate dipped below the State’s 7.9 percent rate for the
first time in a decade. All, however, had parallel and roughly equal decreased unemployment rates
between 2004 and 2006, which increased slightly during the 2006–2008 interval, and rose rapidly
since 2008. This can be attributed to the 2008 economic recession, which was part of a global
financial downturn. Unemployment rates in the ROI and for the State are shown in figure 60.
Figure 60. Annual unemployment rates, 2000-2009
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2000 and 2010
282 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest