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.