Engineering a Transformation
El Paso receives two of the most significant place-based economic development federal investments: EDA Build Back Better Regional Challenge and NSF Regional Innovation Engine Grants. The vision is to bring disruptive changes with an audacious and determined goal to transform our community's economic future. As highlighted by distinguished El Paso leaders in a recent Op-Ed*, El Paso's bet on low-wage labor in the later part of the 20 th Century drove us to the losing end of the post-NAFTA manufacturing job losses. In 1990, our community had 41,400 Manufacturing Jobs**, 20 percent of the total jobs of the El Paso and Upper Rio Grande Valley Regions. The number went down to 16,850 manufacturing jobs (5.4% of the total jobs in the region) in 2019, with a loss of more than 24,000 jobs. All community leaders and policymakers agreed that we must recover at least 70% of those lost jobs to address the structural weakness and future-proofing our regional economy. However, many lost jo