Indio, California, United States

🇺🇸 Indio is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies 23 miles (37 km) east of Palm Springs, 75 miles (121 km) east of Riverside, 127 miles (204 km) east of Los Angeles, 148 miles (238 km) north-east of San Diego, and 250 miles (402 km) west of Phoenix. Indio is the most populous city in the Coachella Valley, and was formerly referred to as the Hub of the Valley after a Chamber of Commerce slogan used in the 1970s. It was later nicknamed the City of Festivals, a reference to the numerous cultural events held in the city, most notably the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Economy Two major contributions to the local economy are year-round agriculture and tourism, although the majority of tourist activity is seasonal, between October and May.

Agriculture Indio has been one of Southern California's most important agricultural regions, once responsible for a large percentage of the nation's date crop; however, increasing residential and recreational development, the date groves are now more limited to the south and south-east of Indio. Even the grove of date palm trees at the Riverside County Fair and national Date Festival grounds have been removed by the county.

Travellers from around the world still can stop by Shields Date Gardens, a date grower that maintains a large retail store along State Highway 111. There are citrus groves and vegetable fields surrounding the city limits, but rapid development of new housing tracts and golf courses in the "East Valley" in the 1990s and 2000s has displaced most of the agricultural space.

Employment and job growth In recent years, Indio served as a magnet of job opportunities for immigrants and newcomers from parts of California and across the nation. Job fields such as agriculture, construction, hospitality (hotels and resorts), maintenance, and retail and housekeeping are highly needed in the area. Construction and government are one of the largest employment sectors in Indio, with a higher proportion of workers in these industries in Indio than the rest of the Coachella Valley.

In addition to construction and government, a recent 2019 study revealed that the top five employment industries in Indio are educational services, entertainment services, wholesale/retail, agriculture/mining/construction, and waste services. Between 2007 and 2015, the percentage of retail trade jobs in Indio increased by 4.4 percent and the percentage of education jobs increased from 15.2 to 20.5 percent.

As the second seat of government for Riverside County, California, Indio has many county offices and employs more than a thousand county employees. The California Superior Court's Larson Justice Center, Riverside County's Law Library and District Attorney's office, numerous law firms along Highway 111, and the California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) College of Law (the only law school in Riverside County), located at 45290 Fargo Street, have made Downtown Indio the centre for law and legal studies in the Coachella Valley.

The average salary for a job in Indio increased from $28,224 in 2003 to $35,532 in 2015. The City of Indio is constantly expanding to see the number of jobs and average salaries rise. It is currently in the process of a 2040 general plan to increase the number of developments in Indio. For example, the city opened a 120-room Fairfield Inn and Suites in February 2019 and broke ground on a 93-room Hampton Inn and Suites that is expected to open January 2020. A new movie theatre and the continual development of retail stores at the Indio Towne Center, The Showcase at Indio, and The Palms shopping centres is also sure to create an abundance of jobs.

Light industry is not new to Indio. Between the 1960s and the early 1980s, the Bank of America-owned Giannini Research Institute, Kaiser Inc. and Cabazon Firearms had contracts with both NASA and the US Armed Forces that produced ammunition, computer parts, moon rover parts for the Apollo landing program, and train engines for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Indio sought more corporate businesses and office professions, including fruit packing and shipping firms. Locally based United States Filter Corporation, Guy Evans Inc., Dimare Fruit Co., West Coast Turf and Japanese-owned Sun World Inc.; and move-in companies such as Borden, Coca-Cola, Ernie Ball, Ernst and Young, Ferguson, Fulton Distributors, Guthy-Renker, Pulte Homes, Sunrise Company, SunScape Tech and Tala Industries choose Indio for the location of transport routes, low economic costs, and growth potential.

Indio is home to Buzz Box Premium Cocktails, Ring Power Corporation, Triangle Distributing Company (formerly Heimark), The Forager Project, and Purus International. Other companies in Indio include Pepsi Cola Distributing, RDO Equipment, Sepulveda Building Materials, Fortun Foods, Arctic Glacier, A.C. Houston Lumber Company, and Commercial Lighting Industry.

Top employers According to a recent Financial Report, the top employers in the city include: 1 Desert Sands Unified School District; 2 County of Riverside; 3 Fantasy Springs Resort Casino; 4 John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital; 5 Walmart Supercenter; 6 City of Indio; 7 Ralphs; 8 Riverside County Superior Court; 9 Indio Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; 10 Cardenas Markets.

Native American gaming Two Native American owned casinos in and near Indio are the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, owned by the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, and the Spotlight 29 Casino, owned by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. Spotlight 29 formerly was "Trump 29" when it was partly owned by then-businessman Donald Trump for a brief period of time in the 2000s.