For wage job gains during 2017, it was metro Albuquerque and two rural counties. As reported last week, when the summary numbers were released, the state added 10,800 jobs. Albuquerque gained 4,400 jobs, or 41% of the state total. Eddy and Lea counties, both considered rural gained 3,400 jobs, or 31% of the total.
Farmington, Las Cruces and Santa Fe, the other three metro areas, lost 300 jobs between them for the year between December 2016 and December 2017. Government, down 700 jobs, pulled Las Cruces into the red for 2017. Local government around the Las Cruces metro dropped 600 jobs.
The Department of Workforce Solutions released metro job details yesterday.
Including making up the 300 lost metro jobs, the remaining 24 rural counties gained 3,000 jobs, or 28% of the new jobs scattered around about the home of half the state’s population.
Those 3,100 new leisure and hospitality jobs reported last week included 900 jobs added in December. A guess is that total will take a hit as ski areas continue without natural snow. So will supporting retail.
The small (20,100 jobs) financial sector led Albuquerque’s year-over-year growth with 1,600 jobs, an 8.6% hike. Leisure and hospitality followed with 1,400 jobs, or 3.4%.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
State Gains Jobs. Mining Loses. Eddy, Lea Counties Gain
The year-end jobs report shows few signs of life in the New Mexico economy. My assessment is that our economy is weak and getting a little less weak. The claim by Gov. Susana Martinez in the January 16 State of the State address that we are strong and getting stronger is nonsense.
The state added 10,800 wage jobs in the year between December 2016 and December 2017, massive growth of 1.3%. Government lost 700 jobs over the year; the private sector added 11,500. For the month of December, the state lost 500 jobs.
The unemployment rate was six percent in December, nicely down from 6.7% a year ago. The state is now tied Washington, D.C., for the second highest rate behind Alaska. We had been third for months after D.C. and Alaska. The year-over-year unemployment rate drop was big enough to gain the designation of statistical significance from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the numbers for the Department of Workforce Solutions to repackage and release. DWS released the report yesterday. The state’s job gain wasn’t big enough to be significant.
My guess is that the expansion of the national economy explains much for the state’s improvement. For example, leisure and hospitality, which is tourism to a fair extent, tied with construction to lead sector growth with 3,100 additional wage jobs. New Mexicans traveling in-state aren’t driving the growth. Instead, people from other states with jobs and higher incomes are visiting here.
Weakness shows in the 700-job year-over-year drop in mining, which mostly is oil and gas. Yet Eddy and Lea counties, center of the business, gained 3,400 jobs over the year. Even long-suffering San Juan County, home to the gas business, gained around 700 jobs.
More weakness shows in manufacturing, which continues to fade, dropping another 200 jobs for the year.
The two sectors are small, which only 44,300 jobs between them in December. But they pay well and are basic industry sectors, unlike construction which depends on businesses in other sectors to need buildings.
The state added 10,800 wage jobs in the year between December 2016 and December 2017, massive growth of 1.3%. Government lost 700 jobs over the year; the private sector added 11,500. For the month of December, the state lost 500 jobs.
The unemployment rate was six percent in December, nicely down from 6.7% a year ago. The state is now tied Washington, D.C., for the second highest rate behind Alaska. We had been third for months after D.C. and Alaska. The year-over-year unemployment rate drop was big enough to gain the designation of statistical significance from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the numbers for the Department of Workforce Solutions to repackage and release. DWS released the report yesterday. The state’s job gain wasn’t big enough to be significant.
My guess is that the expansion of the national economy explains much for the state’s improvement. For example, leisure and hospitality, which is tourism to a fair extent, tied with construction to lead sector growth with 3,100 additional wage jobs. New Mexicans traveling in-state aren’t driving the growth. Instead, people from other states with jobs and higher incomes are visiting here.
Weakness shows in the 700-job year-over-year drop in mining, which mostly is oil and gas. Yet Eddy and Lea counties, center of the business, gained 3,400 jobs over the year. Even long-suffering San Juan County, home to the gas business, gained around 700 jobs.
More weakness shows in manufacturing, which continues to fade, dropping another 200 jobs for the year.
The two sectors are small, which only 44,300 jobs between them in December. But they pay well and are basic industry sectors, unlike construction which depends on businesses in other sectors to need buildings.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
December Real Estate Numbers Up
The December numbers moved in a happy direction for the single family detached home marker in metro Albuquerque. The Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors released the December sales report yesterday.
As compared to December 2016, December 2017 new listings were down, pending and closed sales were up, the time to sell a house was down and the inventory of homes for sale was down.
As compared to November, the comparisons show different results, a least part of which is the seasonal slowing of sales.
Closed sales, 904 in December, were up 19 units, or 2.1%, from a year ago. Sales were down 78 units, or 9.4%, from November. Pending sales increased 61 units, or nine percent from a year ago, but showed a 179 unit, or 19.5% drop from November.
Homes took an average 54 days to sell during December, five fewer days than during November 2016. The average sales period was up from 51 days in November and 46 days during October.
The median sales price was $193,900 during December with the average sales price at $230,180. Prices increased, respectively, 2.1% and 3.9% from December 2016. The median price dropped $5,600, or 2.8%, from November. The average was down $6,909, or 2.9%, from November.
During 2017 the sale of 11,745 single family detached homes closed in metro Albuquerque. That was a 6.5% increase from 2016. The sale of 1,165 condominiums and townhouses closed during the year, an 11.3% increase over 2016.
As compared to December 2016, December 2017 new listings were down, pending and closed sales were up, the time to sell a house was down and the inventory of homes for sale was down.
As compared to November, the comparisons show different results, a least part of which is the seasonal slowing of sales.
Closed sales, 904 in December, were up 19 units, or 2.1%, from a year ago. Sales were down 78 units, or 9.4%, from November. Pending sales increased 61 units, or nine percent from a year ago, but showed a 179 unit, or 19.5% drop from November.
Homes took an average 54 days to sell during December, five fewer days than during November 2016. The average sales period was up from 51 days in November and 46 days during October.
The median sales price was $193,900 during December with the average sales price at $230,180. Prices increased, respectively, 2.1% and 3.9% from December 2016. The median price dropped $5,600, or 2.8%, from November. The average was down $6,909, or 2.9%, from November.
During 2017 the sale of 11,745 single family detached homes closed in metro Albuquerque. That was a 6.5% increase from 2016. The sale of 1,165 condominiums and townhouses closed during the year, an 11.3% increase over 2016.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
ABQ Blows Smoke at Sunset Mag. Sunset Inhales
Abq is one of 20 communities in Sunset magazine’s annual “20 Best Places to Live” feature. The headline is, “an enchanting downtown revival.” The first mention is “Breaking Bad.” The second is that Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque, which happened in 1975. S0 ABQ has no other cool events in the last 43 years except “Breaking Bad.” The photo is dominated by the Kimo Theater. The hot news is that the “12-block” Central Ave core is being “reinvigorated” from its previous existence of boarded up warehouses and tagged railroad cars, attractions that exist but are off the main Central Ave downtown. Sunset touts the “city’s investment in new public transportation lines.” Just today new Mayor Tim Keller held a news conference detailing the lengthy list of big troubles with those transportation lines, which are know as the ART project. And the city still doesn’t have the money from the feds to pay for ART.
Sunset claims downtown “has become a place where locals gather all days of the week.” My understanding is that downtown is substantially empty. Am I missing something?
Sunset claims downtown “has become a place where locals gather all days of the week.” My understanding is that downtown is substantially empty. Am I missing something?
Thursday, January 4, 2018
No Surprise—Higher Ed Study Recommends No Change
A study led by the Higher Education Department that recommended no change in the structure of higher education in New Mexico wasn’t quite as ridiculous as it sounds. That’s because the study group was responding to a joint memorial from the 2017 legislature instructing that the department to compare New Mexico higher education with other states.
So that’s what the group did—play by the imposed rules.
Apparently nothing creative appeared.
My reaction to the headline, “Higher ed panel doesn’t endorse consolidation,” was that here we had another instance of the fox being assigned to review the condition of the chicken coop. A prominent such circumstance was a couple of years ago when the transportation department review the status of the commuter railroad, which it runs. NO, DOT’s repot said, we can’t do anything with the railroad except continue to lose millions each year.
To a certain extent, we did have a chicken coop exercise, but the group was just playing within the assigned rules. Still, when Western New Mexico President Joe Shepard co-leads the group, it can be expected that he will defend “local control.” Yet Western leads my list for structural change, as in from a four-year school into two-year school and perhaps closing Western’s programs in Deming or Truth or Consequences or turning them over to New Mexico State which will have greater administrative capability.
So that’s what the group did—play by the imposed rules.
Apparently nothing creative appeared.
My reaction to the headline, “Higher ed panel doesn’t endorse consolidation,” was that here we had another instance of the fox being assigned to review the condition of the chicken coop. A prominent such circumstance was a couple of years ago when the transportation department review the status of the commuter railroad, which it runs. NO, DOT’s repot said, we can’t do anything with the railroad except continue to lose millions each year.
To a certain extent, we did have a chicken coop exercise, but the group was just playing within the assigned rules. Still, when Western New Mexico President Joe Shepard co-leads the group, it can be expected that he will defend “local control.” Yet Western leads my list for structural change, as in from a four-year school into two-year school and perhaps closing Western’s programs in Deming or Truth or Consequences or turning them over to New Mexico State which will have greater administrative capability.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Tour Acoma Sky City. A Matter of Respect. Take Money.
We visited Acoma Sky City a few weeks ago. Sky City is the mesa—a rock, really—that still is home to a few Acoma People and draws hundreds for feast days, dances and other ceremonies. Sky City is located about 15 miles south of 1-40 and is reachable from exit 108 on the west and exit 102 on the east. Check www.acomaskycity.org for details such as tour times. Tours are competently run, informative and not exactly cheap at $25/person regular price. For romantics there is plenty of opportunity to partake of the Native American ethereal and spirituality. The Sky City brochure quotes a woman from Florida, “What an eye opening reverent moment.” OK.
Sky City is a 700-year time warp or maybe 900 years. The rock has no plumbing, no running water and no electricity except for propane.
A few highlights were unexpected simply because I hadn’t given them a thought. Sky City is a shopping mall. The tour is circle around the top of the rock. All along the route Acoma craftspeople have tables with their stuff, nice stuff. The vendors must be paid. We used cash. Others paid electronically using what I took to be a wireless device the size of a smartphone. The payment was inserted into one end of the device.
The tour buses climb a road that was cut 20 years (or so) ago to transport movie filming gear to the top. A newish, 4-door silver BMW was my first sight after our bus left the road. Note this, not a pickup truck, though we a saw a couple of new looking, large and brightly polished pickups, but a Beemer, baby. Cool.
A New Mexicans should take the tour. It’s a matter of respect.
Sky City is a 700-year time warp or maybe 900 years. The rock has no plumbing, no running water and no electricity except for propane.
A few highlights were unexpected simply because I hadn’t given them a thought. Sky City is a shopping mall. The tour is circle around the top of the rock. All along the route Acoma craftspeople have tables with their stuff, nice stuff. The vendors must be paid. We used cash. Others paid electronically using what I took to be a wireless device the size of a smartphone. The payment was inserted into one end of the device.
The tour buses climb a road that was cut 20 years (or so) ago to transport movie filming gear to the top. A newish, 4-door silver BMW was my first sight after our bus left the road. Note this, not a pickup truck, though we a saw a couple of new looking, large and brightly polished pickups, but a Beemer, baby. Cool.
A New Mexicans should take the tour. It’s a matter of respect.
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