Mixed Signals From NM Economy, That's Good

Some OK things happened in the New Mexico economy between May and June, according to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning.
But the not-so-OK bottom line is that without the education and health services sector, the state would still be losing wage jobs.
Overall, however, the signals appear mixed, a huge improvement over the uniformly poor performance of the past three years. (All the numbers here are seasonally adjusted.)
The two principal jobs numbers went in opposite directions. “Employment” was down 4,400 in June from May, but up 500 from June 2011. “Wage jobs,” a different and probably better quality number, was up 3,700 in June over May and also up—good news here—up 2,100 from June 2010.
More good news comes from the large and well-paid professional and business services sector, up in June to 93,100 jobs by a statistically insignificant 200 jobs from May but also up from April. Professional and business services is down 7,000 from the employment of 100,100 in June 2010.
The small but critical manufacturing sector appears stable over the past year at 28,600 jobs. Government employment has held at just over 198,000 jobs over the year.
Education and health services added 4,000 jobs in June for a total of 127,400, a performance that seems amazing to me. The sector is up 7,500 since June 2010.