Archive for June, 2009

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The statewide employment numbers released today continue the 2009 refrain of down, down, down.

Statewide, only government and health care added jobs over the year. The state unemployment rate went to 6.5% in May with 20,500 jobs lost in the year since May 2008. This is New Mexico’s worst economic performance since 1954, but, hey, says the Department of Workforce Services, we have the 11th best performing state economy, so it must be OK. Not exactly.

Retailing across the state is down 3,800 jobs year over year. DWS doesn’t mention the host of auto related job losses to come, starting with dealerships and including auto parts stores and the people supplying the uniforms for service department workers.

Metro Albuquerque lost 11,600 wage jobs, year over year. There were 27,388 people officially unemployed in Albuquerque during May, an increase of 11,405 in the year. The metro unemployment rate hit 7% in May. Construction has lost jobs for 29 months.

In Las Cruces, 1,900 jobs disappeared during the May to May year. That’s a 2.7% decline.

Santa Fe lost 1,300 jobs year over year, a 2.0% drop. 

New Mexico now has three counties with more than 10% unemployment—Luna, Grant and Mora. A year ago, only Luna County claimed the 10% prize.

Personal income in New Mexico during the first quarter of 2009 showed no change from the fourth quarter of 2008, according to figures released today from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Private sector earnings fell in all states during the quarter, the BEA release said, meaning that the government saved New Mexico again. 

From the first quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2008, personal income in New Mexico grew a healthy 2.6%. Since then the rate of quarterly change has been -0.1%, +0.3% and zero. Nationally, personal income fell 0.5% during the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2008.

New Mexicans earned $64,336 million during the first quarter of 2009.

By percentage of population, New Mexico is both the nation’s most Hispanic and most Native American state, according to new numbers from the Census Bureau. Hispanics account for 44.9% of the 1.98 million New Mexicans. Native Americans are another 9.7%. Asians make up 1.4% of New Mexico’s population.

New Mexico and California tie at 58% for the nation’s second largest proportion of minority population. Hawaii and Texas are the other two majority-minority states. 

Women were 50.7% of New Mexico’s population as of July 1, 2008, the Census said. There are 27,704 more women living in New Mexico than there are men.

The 260,051 people over age 64 comprised  13.1% of New Mexicans. This group doesn’t count the Baby Boomers who are only 63. The over-64 group includes 35,849 who are 85 years old and older.

The state’s Cultural Properties Review Committee this afternoon approved designating a 628 square mile tract anchoring on Mt. Taylor, north and east of Grants, as a Traditional Cultural Property. The approval was no surprise and amounted to a major next-step in the TCP designation process that has been pushed by four pueblos and the Navajo Nation. 

The approval came in a CPRC meeting held in the House of Representatives chamber in the Capitol in Santa Fe. Perhaps 100 to 125 people attended today’s hearing, about half the number that came to the previous TCP/CPRC hearing held May 15, also in the House chamber.

Three elements of interest emerged from today’s meeting. First, lawsuits appealing today’s ruling are already drafted. Whether they are filed, of course remains to be seen.

Second, there was no additional comment on the process from outside the CPRC membership and staff of the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division. The potential of outside comment was raised by a CPRC member. A deputy attorney general, staffing the meeting with the objective of creating the public record (or something like that) said that any public comment would open the meeting to anyone seeking to put in their two cents worth. A bit later, a CPRC member said that the director of the state’s Mining and Minerals Division had been invited as a resource for addressing questions. The AG staffer said that allowing this expert to talk would raise the same specter as the previous potential of outside comment.

The third interesting item was the appearance at the meeting of Bill Hume, a senior aide to Gov. Bill Richardson. Hume sat in the first row next to Cultural Affairs Secretary Stuart Ashman.