Jobs and pay in New Mexico

The highest-paying occupations in New Mexico

Sorted by median annual wage — the midpoint of what people in the occupation are paid in this state, not what a newcomer earns. Occupations BLS did not release a wage for are absent rather than shown as zero.

1 further occupation is paid more than every figure below, but BLS publishes it only as $239,200 or more, its reporting cap: cardiologists. They cannot be ranked against each other, so they are named here rather than listed as identical rows.

1. Emergency medicine physicians$405,130
2. Anesthesiologists$393,970
3. Surgeons, all other$363,940
4. Physicians, all other$327,670
5. Obstetricians and gynecologists$259,990
6. Family medicine physicians$228,040
7. Psychiatrists$227,730
8. Architectural and engineering managers$215,120
9. Judges, magistrate judges, and magistrates$205,400
10. Podiatrists$202,690
11. Pediatricians, general$202,390
12. Computer and information research scientists$165,690
13. Materials engineers$165,600
14. Computer hardware engineers$165,350
15. Physicists$165,340
16. Nuclear engineers$164,300
17. Engineers, all other$162,070
18. Electrical engineers$158,520
19. Chemical engineers$158,190
20. Mechanical engineers$157,710
21. Dentists, general$155,260
22. Air traffic controllers$148,550
23. Pharmacists$147,000
24. Emergency management directors$145,550
25. Optometrists$144,660

Where the jobs actually are in New Mexico

The same list sorted by how many people are employed in each occupation, which is a different question from what it pays and usually a more useful one. High pay in an occupation employing 400 people statewide is a narrower opportunity than it looks.

1. Home health and personal care aides38,910 employed
2. Fast food and counter workers28,250 employed
3. Secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive25,430 employed
4. Retail salespersons23,800 employed
5. Cashiers19,020 employed
6. Registered nurses17,980 employed
7. Customer service representatives16,950 employed
8. Stockers and order fillers16,540 employed
9. General and operations managers16,330 employed
10. Janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners14,360 employed
11. Waiters and waitresses12,740 employed
12. Construction laborers12,470 employed
13. Office clerks, general11,880 employed
14. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers11,820 employed
15. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand10,200 employed
16. Maintenance and repair workers, general9,320 employed
17. Teaching assistants, except postsecondary8,970 employed
18. Business operations specialists, all other8,450 employed
19. Security guards8,410 employed
20. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers8,330 employed
21. Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education8,120 employed
22. Cooks, restaurant7,810 employed
23. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks7,780 employed
24. First-line supervisors of retail sales workers7,660 employed
25. Food preparation workers6,850 employed

The best-paid New Mexico work that typically needs no bachelor's degree

Occupations BLS reports as typically entered with an associate's degree, a postsecondary certificate, some college, a high-school diploma, or no formal credential — sorted by what they pay here. Typical is not a requirement, individual employers set their own, and many of these carry state licensing that the national figure does not capture.

1. Air traffic controllers$148,550 · Associate's degree
2. Electro-mechanical and mechatronics technologists and technicians$119,320 · Associate's degree
3. Power plant operators$105,510 · High school diploma or equivalent
4. Engineering technologists and technicians, except drafters, all other$101,750 · Associate's degree
5. Transportation, storage, and distribution managers$101,420 · High school diploma or equivalent
6. Electrical and electronics drafters$101,330 · Associate's degree
7. Gambling managers$101,260 · High school diploma or equivalent
8. Boilermakers$101,200 · High school diploma or equivalent
9. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay$100,410 · Postsecondary nondegree award
10. Radiation therapists$100,010 · Associate's degree
11. Nuclear medicine technologists$98,400 · Associate's degree
12. Commercial pilots$97,920 · Postsecondary nondegree award
13. Gas plant operators$97,660 · High school diploma or equivalent
14. Mechanical engineering technologists and technicians$97,560 · Associate's degree
15. Electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians$96,070 · Associate's degree
16. Dental hygienists$95,940 · Associate's degree
17. Avionics technicians$94,020 · Postsecondary nondegree award
18. First-line supervisors of police and detectives$92,200 · High school diploma or equivalent
19. Postmasters and mail superintendents$91,500 · High school diploma or equivalent
20. Millwrights$90,230 · High school diploma or equivalent
21. Mechanical drafters$89,940 · Associate's degree
22. Locomotive engineers$88,330 · High school diploma or equivalent
23. Magnetic resonance imaging technologists$87,850 · Associate's degree
24. Diagnostic medical sonographers$87,210 · Associate's degree
25. Detectives and criminal investigators$86,840 · High school diploma or equivalent

A certificate is a different credential from a degree, not a lesser one. CampusPin publishes the national picture of pay by entry education and which fields are actually awarded as certificates rather than degrees.

What New Mexico does more of than the rest of the country

Location quotient: this occupation's share of New Mexico employment divided by its share of U.S. employment. 2.0 means twice as concentrated here as nationally. It describes where the work IS — not what it pays, and not how easy it is to be hired. Limited to occupations employing at least 500 people in the state, so a tiny base cannot manufacture a large ratio.

Derrick operators, oil and gas lead, much more concentrated here than nationally.

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