Job Growth November

Wage employment in New Mexico grew 1.2% during the year from November 2006 through November 2007. The numbers were released yesterday. This was up from the 0.9% growth in the October to October year. During November, the state's unemployment rate bumped to 3.4% from the record (since 1976) low in October of 3.1%. While never a single data point does a trend make, it seems here that the state's low job growth has to show up in a higher unemployment rate eventually.

Construction around the state is down 400 jobs (0.7%) in the past year. Manufacturing has lost 1,500 jobs or 0.4%. The information sector, home to movie jobs, is flat. The Department of Workforce Solutions, source of these numbers, continues to point out the project nature of movie work. The short term jobs can mean swings or several thousand jobs, one way or the other, during a given months. It appears that a good many movie jobs are hardly the long term "sustainable" jobs that were promoted as the benefit of putting big money into industry subsidies.

Wage employment in Albuquerque grew only 0.4% during November to November year. That meant 1,400 new jobs over the year. Four of the 12 major industry groups lost jobs. Six added employment, but only 100 in several sectors.

Wage jobs increased 2.1% in Las Cruces, 4.3% in Santa Fe and 2.1% in Farmington.