Friday, May 26, 2017

Construction Leads April Job Growth

Job production in metro Albuquerque dominates the metro areas these days with 86%, or 1,900, of the 2,200 metro wage jobs added between April 2016 and April 2017.
But the metro areas aren’t carrying the state. Those 2,200 metro jobs are just 30% of the 7,400 wage jobs appearing across the state during the April to April year.
The state’s smaller metros job growth was Santa Fe, +700; Las Cruces, +300; and -700 in Farmington.
In Albuquerque manufacturing lost 1,100 jobs for the year with professional and business services down 1,000.
Construction led sector job production in Albuquerque with 1,200 more jobs, year over year. Construction added another 1,400 jobs around the rest of the state. Education and health services added 900 jobs, but the EHS growth rate of 1.4% was well off the past years. Tourism (leisure and hospitality found 800 jobs during the year.
The Department of Workforce Solutions released the metro job report today.

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Unemployment Rate Remains Nation's Highest

A little job momentum appears. New Mexico added 7,400 wages jobs during the year from April 2016 to April 2017. At 0.9%, the growth approached one percent, a magic number of sorts. The March job growth was revised to 7,400, the Department of Workforce Solutions said yesterday in its news release. The original March figure was 6,800 for year-over-year growth.
What DWS didn’t say was that New Mexico’s unemployment rate remains the nation’s highest at 6.7%, just ahead of Alaska’s 6.6%. NM and Alaska are only states over 6%. Colorado has nation’s lowest at 2.3%.
The especially good news is that mining only lost 500 jobs year over year, well down from the thousands of year over year losses that have plagued the sector since oil prices peaked in mid-2014. National stories repeat that oil companies look at the Permian Basin, our oil Mecca, with gleams in their eyes.
The health care and social assistance part of education and health services (EHS) added 600 jobs, or 0.5%, quite different from 2016 when the EHS sector was the state’s fastest growing with 5,700 new wage jobs, year over year.
Manufacturing took the lead for sector job losses, down 900 jobs, or 3.3%.
State government dropped 1,300 jobs led by 1,400 fewer jobs in state government education, meaning universities. (Other parts of state government apparently added 100 jobs.) Local government education (K-12) dropped 500 jobs.
Leisure and hospitality (L&H) led the gainer sectors with 3,300 more jobs, year-over-year, a nice 3.5 % increase. (L&H) had added jobs for 6.5 years, DWS said. Construction added 2,600 jobs, a six percent increase.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Abq Home Sales down Slightly During April; Prices Up

In May, the pattern for single family detached home sales in metro Albuquerque got a little disrupted. The number of closed sales—981 during April— dropped slightly—all of 30 units, or 3%—from 1,011 during March. The Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors released the April sales report today.
April’s sales were 76% of the 1,299 homes with a sale pending during March, a low percentage. April’s closed sales performance was eight ahead of the 973 homes sold during April 2016. That’s a 0.8% increase.
The rest of the pattern stayed in place—fewer homes offered for sale, homes selling faster, prices increasing and more sales pending.
The median sales price was $194,500 during April, a $9,500, or 5.1%, increase from April 2016. The median sales price for March was $187,500. April’s average sales price was $235,875, up 8.8% from April 2016. The March average price was $222,759.
Pending sales were 1,331 during April, 1,299 during March and 1,080 during April 2016.
Homes sold during April took an average of 51 days to sell. The average sales period was 54 days during March and 59 days during April 2016.