Friday, April 28, 2017

Weekly Working Hours, Earnings Drop in Metro Areas

Of the state’s 6,800 new wage jobs between March 2016 and March 2017, 2,100 came in the north central urban area of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Albuquerque added 2,000 jobs, or 0.5%, with 100 more jobs in Santa Fe, a 0.5% increase. Las Cruces has 1,000 more jobs for the year, a nice 1.4% increase, while Farmington lost 1,600 jobs, a heavy 3.2% drop. The numbers here are not seasonally adjusted and came this afternoon from the Department of Workforce Solutions.
Statewide state government education, meaning post-secondary education, was down 1,700 jobs. The losses appear to be in rural counties as the metro areas showed little movement. This is a guess as the data isn’t broken out.
Albuquerque added 1,300 jobs between February and March.
Education and health services (EHS) accounted for 1,300 of Albuquerque’s year-over-year new jobs. Information added 600 with 400 more in construction.
Year-over-year Albuquerque manufacturing dropped 900 jobs for a sector total of 15,300. This is just over half the peak of 28,900 jobs in August 1997 and the lowest total since January 1990.
In Las Cruces the year-over-year sector leaders were leisure and hospitality (LH) and education and health services (EHS), both with 400 more jobs. The LH gain was 4.9% with 2.6% for the larger EHS.
In Santa Fe, EHS led the losers, down 200 jobs for the third year-over-year loss in nine months. LH added 400 jobs.
Farmington continues to be hit by oil and gas. Wage employment is below the 2010 average of 48,400.
Average weekly working hours in the private sector were down, year-over-year for all four metros as were average weekly earnings.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Unemployment Rate Leadership Continues

In March New Mexico kept its leadership among the states in unemployment (seasonally adjusted), according to today’s release of wage job figures from federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state’s Department of Workforce Solutions reported the 6.7% unemployment rate in its news release, as it had to, but somehow overlooked New Mexico’s leading position.
The unemployment rate was down an insignificant tenth of a point from February and up an equally insignificant tenth of a point from March 2016. We are hanging in at more than two points above the national unemployment rate of 4.9%. Mississippi’s one point unemployment year over year rate drop—from 6% to 5%—was significant.
Overall, the BS said, “Unemployment rates were lower in March in 17 states and stable in 33 states and the District of Columbia.”
The state added 7,100 wage jobs (seasonally adjusted jobs) in the year between March 2016 and March 2017, a performance the BLS did not consider statistically significant. This insignificance was too insignificant to make the DWS release. Seasonally unadjusted, the job gain was 6,800.
For mining and logging, the continuing drag on the state’s job picture, the year-over-year loss was down to 1,400.
Among the other losers, manufacturing continued down with a year-over-year drop of 1,100 in the durable goods sector. Retail trade dropped 800 seasonally adjusted jobs. Education lost 2,000 jobs with 1,700 (5.6%) from higher education (state government education) and 300 from local government education (public schools).
Leisure and hospitality was the bigger gainer for the month with 3,700 new jobs, seasonally unadjusted, and 2,900 with the adjustment. The combined education and health services sector added 3,200 jobs with 1,700 in health and 1,500 in education. Professional and business services added 800 jobs year-over-year.