NM Job Losses Beat Mississippi

West Virginia’s percentage job losses continued to beat New Mexico’s in October. West Virginia was down 1.5% over the year from October 2011. New Mexico lost 0.7%, or 5,900 jobs. New Mexico has lost jobs since June.

Five other states are in the select group of year-over-year job losers. Wage jobs in Mississippi were down 0.3%, less than half New Mexico’s loss rate. Arizona added 46,600 jobs for a 1.9% increase. Colorado was up 41,600 jobs, a 1.8% improvement.

With the year-over-year job losses, Albuquerque’s report this morning of a gross receipts tax shortfall qualifies as the least surprising event of the day. Job losses go directly to sales losses without passing Go.

The year-over-year losses were led by government, down 4,500 with 3,800 jobs gone from state government and another 1,400 from the feds. Local government added 700.

For the month from September to October, government added 2,500 jobs on a not seasonally adjusted basis with 2,000 more in state government education (universities, one supposes) and 1,600 more in local government education. This seems confusing as I thought the schools went back to work in August.

Leisure and hospitality and education and health services led the year-over-year increases with 2,500 more jobs each. Together the two sectors employ 215,000, providing more than a quarter of the state’s wage jobs.

The national laboratory-linked professional and business services sector dropped 3,400 jobs for the year including 200 in September. The sector is the state’s second largest employment category with 96,500 jobs in October after the year-over-year losses.

Construction added 1,200 jobs in October but lost another 1,300 for the year.

Los Alamos, Eddy and Lea counties continued with an unemployment rate under 4%. Luna and Mora counties remained above 11%.