The one thing sure for me about New Mexico’s 2019 wage job growth is that it isn’t happening in the four metro areas. That should be intuitively obvious given that the oil-boom counties are in the southeast corner, a long way from the nearest metro, Las Cruces. Still the difference is striking.
The state added 15,500 wage jobs between August 2018 and August 2019. The Department of Workforce Solutions and the Bureau of Labor Statistics released that number a week ago. The details came in the DWS Labor Market Review newsletter, released Friday September 27.
By my count the four metros—Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe and Farmington—added 3,000 jobs. That’s about 20% of the new jobs to the four areas with well over half the population. The metro breakout is: Albuquerque is up 2,400 jobs, August to August. Las Cruces has added 500, with 400 more in Farmington and 300 fewer in Santa Fe.
By heavy contrast Eddy and Lea counties added 5,318 jobs with 3,216 jobs in Eddy and 2102 in Lea. The two counties scored 34% of the August to August job growth.
This growth shows in the average private sector weekly wage by county. Los Alamos leads $1,572. Eddy has $1,214 with $1,115 in Lea. With $901, Bernalillo is in fourth place. Catron county is 33rd with $391. Though Los Alamos National Laboratory is technically private sector, those LANL wages come from the feds.
In metro Albuquerque, leisure and hospitality lead sector growth by percent (+1,800, 4%). Education and health services added 2,100 jobs (+3.3%) Professional and business services added 2,100 jobs (+3.4%)
In last week’s entry I claimed metro Albuquerque was up 11,000 jobs for the year. Wrong. My apologies.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Friday, September 20, 2019
Jobs Grow for August. Some Confusion seen.
New Mexico’s unemployment rate, on a seasonally adjusted basis, nudged up a tenth of a point in August as compared to August 2018. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the producer of the numbers, did not consider the change significant. The 4.9% unemployment rate ranks fifth among the states, just behind Arizona’s 5%.
The August employment numbers were released this afternoon by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.
The change in New Mexico’s employment—a 17,500 seasonally adjusted increase to 860,700 in August—is significant, however. This is a 2.1% bump.
Construction was up 4,300 wage jobs, not seasonally adjusted, for the year, a 9% increase, The BLS report.
Switching to unadjusted wage job numbers, the total grew 15,500 jobs, 1.8% growth. Not bad, but not joyous.
Leisure and hospitality (mostly tourism) led the grow of major sectors with 4,000 more jobs, or 4%. Construction followed with 3,300 jobs. Then it was professional and business services, plus 2,000; mining, plus 1,900; health care and social assistance, plus 1,800, and financial activities, up 1,200.
A cursory county review provides some confusion. Metro Albuquerque is up 11,000 jobs over the year. Eddy has added 3,200 with 2,100 more in Lea. That’s 16,300, more than the state’s 15,500 jobs. Yet all the other counties seemed to grow. Clearly a more detailed look is needed.
The August employment numbers were released this afternoon by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.
The change in New Mexico’s employment—a 17,500 seasonally adjusted increase to 860,700 in August—is significant, however. This is a 2.1% bump.
Construction was up 4,300 wage jobs, not seasonally adjusted, for the year, a 9% increase, The BLS report.
Switching to unadjusted wage job numbers, the total grew 15,500 jobs, 1.8% growth. Not bad, but not joyous.
Leisure and hospitality (mostly tourism) led the grow of major sectors with 4,000 more jobs, or 4%. Construction followed with 3,300 jobs. Then it was professional and business services, plus 2,000; mining, plus 1,900; health care and social assistance, plus 1,800, and financial activities, up 1,200.
A cursory county review provides some confusion. Metro Albuquerque is up 11,000 jobs over the year. Eddy has added 3,200 with 2,100 more in Lea. That’s 16,300, more than the state’s 15,500 jobs. Yet all the other counties seemed to grow. Clearly a more detailed look is needed.
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