Job Growth: March

The employment news for March was the unemployment news. New Mexico's unemployment rate kicked up half a point from 3.2% in February to 3.7% in March, the level of a year ago. The Department of Workforce Solutions, keeper of the job numbers, claims the new unemployment percentage was "not far above January's record low of 3.1%." I'd hate to see a change in percentage that DWS considers "far above" the 19% jump in the rate.

Year-over-year job growth for March was 0.6%, numerically "not far above" February's 0.4% growth and the same rate of nearly no growth that has been the case for several months.

Job growth percentages for three metro areas remain above the state's performance. From March 2007 to March 2008, metro job growth was:

Albuquerque: 0.3%.

Santa Fe: 1.4%.

Las Cruces: 1.6%.

Farmington: 3.5%.

Metro Albuquerque construction has lost jobs for 15 consecutive months. Manufacturing employment has dropped for ten months.

Yesterday, April 24, the same day as the March job figures were released, the Albuquerque Journal reported the semi-annual "Economy Watch" from the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of New Mexico. The BBER report, which was "commissioned" by the Journal, used year-end figures that showed 1% annual job growth, about twice the rate of the past few months.