Luna County Unemployment Rate Now Under 10%

New Mexico’s employment to population rate increased 1.1 points to 56% during the year from September 2018 to September 2019, according to figures released yesterday in the Labor Market Review, the newsletter of the Department of Workforce Solutions. The ration for the nation was 61%.
Wage jobs increased 2.4% statewide during the year.
It was a good month for the rural counties, less so for the metro areas. Among the counties, Luna continued to lead the unemployment with 8.1%, down a tenth of a point from September 2018 and down from 8.7% in August. Luna having less then ten percent unemployment offers one marker of increasing economic health in New Mexico.
Los Alamos County kept it traditional lowest unemployment rate with 2.9%. Oil booming Eddy County and small population Union are right behind at 3%. Metro job growth, in descending order, was Albuquerque 1%, Santa Fe 0.8%, Las Cruces and Farmington, both 0.4%.
Leisure and hospitality led Albuquerque’s growth with 3,100 new wage jobs, a 7% increase. Professional and business services grew 3.9% with 2,400 new jobs. Santa Fe’s growth was in “other services,” whatever that is, up 300 jobs and 9%. Leisure and hospitality both added 400 jobs, but the percentage was lower because the sectors are larger. Las Cruces added 600 jobs in education and health services, 3.8% growth for the year.
The Labor Market Review reviewed the demographics of people aged 16 to 24 or 18 to 24, depending on the category. Just 62.5% of the 18 to 24 group were born in the state, which certainly give the lie to the oft-heard claim that superior wisdom come with having one’s family be in the state for a bazillion generations. This claim leaves out the other 37.5%, most of whom (28.7% of the total) were born in some other United States state. The foreign born were 7.9%.
For some presumably recent year (DWS didn’t specify), 12.6% of New Mexicans were aged 16 to 24. That’s 262,078 people

State Job Growth Is 2.2% in September

uring September unemployment rates were stable in 39 states, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Non-farm wage jobs were “essentially unchanged” in 45 states. New Mexico was one of the states with “statistically significant” changes in seasonally adjusted wage job totals for the year from September 2018 to September 2019, the BLS said. Our 18,800 net new jobs were a 2.2% gain. Nice!
The state Department of Workforce Solutions also release job totals today.
New Mexico’s 4.9% unemployment rate in September ties Arizona for fourth place nationally. Alaska leads with Mississippi and the District of Columbia tied for second at 5.4% unemployed. The state's unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, hasn’t changed in three months and was 4.9% a year ago.
Construction and mining were the state’s sector performance leaders for the September to September year. Construction saw 10% growth with 4,700 new jobs. Mining, which is pretty much oil and gas, added 2,000 jobs for an 8.1% increase. Leisure and hospitality (the proxy for tourism) followed with 7,200 new jobs and 7.3% growth.
The other gainers were professional and business services, up 2,400 jobs and 2.2%, and health care and social assistance, up 2,200 and 1.8%.
Government grew over the year, led by local government (excluding education), up 2,200 jobs and 4.4%. State government (excluding education) added 1,000 jobs for 3.2% growth as the administration continued to fill those authorized but vacant positions. The feds grew by 1,000 jobs and 3.5%.
Eddy and Lea counties continued their oil-driven jobs with increases, respectively of 3,300 jobs (to 33,895) and 2,000 jobs to 32,153.