Jobs: September. Slide Continues

New Mexico's economic slide continued, down, that is, in September. Headlines, however, went to a seasonally adjusted drop in the unemployment rate to 4% in September, from 4.6% in August. But after leading with the unemployment rate drop, the release from the Department of Workforce Services release said, "The state’s unemployment rate drop in September likely resulted from a statistical sampling anomaly."
The state added 3,900 wage jobs from September 2007 to September 2008. That's a 0.5% increase, or almost nothing. Santa Fe scored its fourth consecutive month of year-over-year wage job losses, enough to be considered a metro-area recession. Albuquerque lost jobs, year-over-year, for the second month. DWS said, "Over the year, the (Albuquerque) metro area recorded its second consecutive month of negative growth, shrinking by 0.2 percent (-700 jobs). Contractions were seen in half of the 12 major industry divisions." The big hit was in manufacturing, where the Eclipse layoff appeared in the numbers. Manufacturing in Albuquerque has lost jobs for 16 months.
New claims for unemployment compensation in NM were 1,295 for the week ending 10/18, up 260 from a year before. For the week ending 10/11, it was 1,481 new claims, up 397. Year over year increases in claims have been the trend for months.
Wage jobs in the metros:
Albuquerque: -0.2%. -700 jobs.
Farmington: +1.9%. +1,000 jobs.
Santa Fe: -0.9%. -600 jobs
Las Cruces: +2%. +1,400 jobs.
For the year, New Mexico's job growth is behind Texas (+2.3%), Colorado (+1%), and Oklahoma (+0.7%). We are ahead of Utah (+0.1%) and Arizona (-2.2%). Hammered by real estate, Arizona has the 50th ranking wage job performance in the nation, behind even Michigan. Rhode Island is last with a 2.7% year over year job loss.