Less Than Meets the Eye to Job Growth

Those nice 1.5% year-over-year wage job increases are gone, One hopes it is only for the monthly moment. That’s because the sectors growing the fastest bring less to the basic economy that is presumed.
The job growth in May was one percent over May 2014 with 8,200 new jobs statewide, a drop from 1.5% the past couple of months.
The other worrisome point in this corner is that the fastest growing job sector is education and health services. The two sectors are home to what you would expect. Education includes private schools, trade school and automobile driving schools. Health services is doctors, hospitals and child care.
Education and health services produced 5,000 new jobs, year over year, 61% of those 8,200 jobs statewide.
Leisure and hospital, home to much of our tourism, added 1,900 jobs from May 2014 to May 2015. The sector also included the restaurants serving a local customer base, and, therefore depending on other basic industries. The sector brings less than meets the eye to consideration of true economic health.
As does the professional and business services sector which, yes, has the consulting engineers but also has lawyers. The sector’s 1,300 new jobs, year over year, did nudge the job total back past 100,000.
Manufacturing lost 100 jobs over the year while mining showed no change. These two sectors, though small, are the core of the wealth producing economy.
In rural news, the Mora County unemployment rate dropped to 9%, or 190 people, leaving Luna County the only county with unemployment over 10%. Luna’s unemployment rate is 18.1%, or 1,873 people.