Two comparisons, both shown. The national basis ranks Lincoln County against every scored U.S. county — its percentile band above is a relative national standing, not a condition. The in-state basis ranks it against New Mexico's other counties (rank and percentile only — bands aren't meaningful within a single state). A county can stand out in its own state while sitting mid-pack nationally. Neither is a forecast.
Lincoln County scores 46.8 on the national CAERI basis — 1889th of 3,142 scored U.S. counties, placing it in the 25th–50th band nationally by percentile, with a medium-confidence rating. Within New Mexico it ranks 33rd of 33 counties (2th in-state percentile). The score summarizes how concentrated local employment is in AI-exposed occupations against the economy's measured capacity to adapt; these are relative-standing bands, not a projection of local job change.
Direct occupational exposure stands at the 17th national percentile. The largest concentrations of locally estimated employment in high-exposure occupations are secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive, office clerks, general, customer service representatives. The share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers under 25 is 6% — well below the state median of 9%; research on AI-era payrolls finds early-career roles in exposed work are where hiring patterns shift first, so this share indicates how soon exposure could be felt, not how large it is.
The share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers 55 and over is 35% (well above the state median) — a higher share historically means slower workforce adjustment when industries restructure. Fiscal sensitivity ranks at the 39th percentile among New Mexico's counties. Census of Governments data shows state aid at 21% of this county's general revenue (well above the state median), and wage- and consumption-sensitive streams (sales, income, and similar own-source taxes, where levied) at 36% of own-source revenue. Property taxes, which respond to economic change more slowly, are counted separately and are not part of that sensitive share. How this state's aid formulas and tax structure carry economic change into local budgets is covered in the state-specific fiscal analysis available to subscribers. All county occupation figures on this page are model-based ESTIMATES with the confidence rating shown above.
Across all 182 high-exposure occupations (top quartile of ensemble exposure) with estimated local employment, Lincoln County has an estimated 1,284 jobs — 18.8% of county employment — carrying an estimated $77M annual wage bill in high-exposure work. The five largest:
| Occupation | Est. local employment* | Exposure (0–1) | Median wage (area) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 124 | 0.50 | $40,210 |
| Office Clerks, General | 83 | 0.44 | $36,520 |
| Customer Service Representatives | 77 | 0.42 | $36,420 |
| Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 70 | 0.43 | $64,490 |
| Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 63 | 0.49 | $66,960 |
| Lincoln County | New Mexico median | |
|---|---|---|
| Share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers under 25 (entry rung) | 6.0% | 8.5% |
| Share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers 55+ (adjustment friction) | 34.5% | 29.5% |
The county number above averages over every community in it. City- and place-level exposure profiles, employer-mix detail, trend monitoring, and peer benchmarking are part of the CAERI subscription for local governments and regional organizations.
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StrataHelm. (2026). Lincoln County, New Mexico — Community AI Exposure & Resilience Index (CAERI v0.3.1) [Data set]. Retrieved August 4, 2026, from https://stratahelm.com/counties/new-mexico/lincoln/
“Lincoln County, New Mexico — CAERI.” StrataHelm, 2026, stratahelm.com/counties/new-mexico/lincoln/. Accessed 4 August 2026.
StrataHelm. “Lincoln County, New Mexico — Community AI Exposure and Resilience Index (v0.3.1).” 2026. https://stratahelm.com/counties/new-mexico/lincoln/
Machine-readable: this county's JSON · national dataset download and data dictionary on the methodology page.
Guadalupe Co., NM (in state)Union Co., NM (in state)De Baca Co., NM (in state)Lawrence Co., IN (similar score)Brule Co., SD (similar score)Ottawa Co., OH (similar score)
Links point to the economically nearest counties (in-state, and similar national score). County-level geographic adjacency is not part of the public reference data, so proximity here is by rank, not by shared border.
| Layer | Sources (vintage) |
|---|---|
| Employment & occupation structure | cbp_nm_county_naics4: Census CBP 2023 API (NAICS2017 classification; PAYANN in $1,000s; noise infusion G/H/J bands, D = withheld -> NaN); county_soc_estimates.meta_nm.json; exposure_scores: 2026-07-04; matrix_staffing_patterns: 2024-34 National Employment Matrix (base year 2024) |
| AI-exposure research base | Anthropic Economic Index; Felten, Raj & Seamans (AIOE); Eloundou et al. — combined as a weighted ensemble with cross-source disagreement feeding the confidence rating |
| Capacity, buffer & fiscal | govfin_nm_county_revenue_mix: 2022 Census of Governments, Survey of Government Finances; lodes_nm_county_flows: LEHD LODES8 OD 2023, JT00/S000; sources: nm_main, nm_aux, az_aux, co_aux, ok_aux, tx_aux, ut_aux; qwi_nm_county_naics3_age: Census QWI (qwi/sa), quarters ['2024-Q4', '2025-Q1', '2025-Q2', '2025-Q3'], sex=0, ownercode=A05 (private), 96 NAICS-3 + '00' all-industry |
| Methodology | CAERI v0.3.1 · public methodology · scores generated 2026-07-12 · page generated 2026-08-04 |
| License | Free to reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license: reuse or redistribute with attribution to “StrataHelm CAERI” and a link back to this page. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |