Friday, June 23, 2017

The Four Metros Together Lose 100 Jobs

Among the state’s four metro areas, it was a 100-job loss for the year from May 2016 to May 2017. The figures are not seasonally adjusted. Thus all the state’s year-over-year gain of 7,500 wage jobs came from the 26 rural counties, plus 100 jobs to cover the metro loss. This is an exceptional performance.
The state’s Department of Workforce Solutions released the metro job numbers today in the May issue of its newsletter, “Labor Market Review.”
The pattern for the three smaller metro areas—Las Cruces, Santa Fe and Farmington—was that a sector gains or loses 100 jobs, then another sector gains or loses 200 jobs. Albuquerque showed some bigger numbers. But then Albuquerque’s wage job total was 389,700 for May. SO there’s more to work with. Albuquerque professional and business services lost 1,600 jobs. State government lost 1,400. Manufacturing lost 1,000. Education and health services added 1,000. Construction added 1,200. Financial activities dropped 600. Transportation gained 700.
Santa Fe, the seat of government, reported the 23rd consecutive monthly job loss, down 100 jobs. The decline was in local government.
The Labor Market Review had to interesting special articles if you’re into numbers without worrying about why the numbers behave that way. “Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) 2016 at a Glance” reviewed employment distribution by major occupational group and discussed the earnings of some occupations. Office and administrative support is the biggest group with 15.3% of the total. That’s nice, but it says little about the functioning of the economy. What do these administrative supporters support?
Architecture and engineers lead average median wages with $85,880. Again, that’s nice. Among some more detailed occupations, pediatricians make the most with an annual median of $192,810.
The other article is “2016 Gross Domestic Product Data.” New Mexico’s GDP trends down.

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