Archive for August, 2009

The unemployment rate in New Mexico, seasonally adjusted, was 7% in July and 6.8% in June, the Department of Workforce Services reported this morning. The rate was 4.2% in July 2008.

There were 25,900 fewer wage jobs across New Mexico during July 2009 than a year before. New Mexico had 815,600 wage jobs during July.

The DWS monthly employment report said the higher paying goods producing sectors have lost more jobs than the service sectors in the past year—14,400 jobs versus 11,500 jobs—and have taken proportionally a far hit than the service sectors. In July 2008, New Mexico had 114,900 goods producing wage jobs; 9.9% of those jobs are gone. But “only” 1.6% of the 726,600 service jobs have been lost in the past year.

With 31,400 people working during July, manufacturing, the key goods-producing sector, is down 4,100 jobs or 13.1% since July 2008. Those 31,400 people worked an average of 37.2 hours each week during July, a two-hour drop from July 2008. They earned an average of $14.50 per hour, a 26 cent one-year drop. Those hours and wages turned into weekly earnings of $539.40 during July, down from $578.59 a year before.

Metro Albuquerque lost 2,500 jobs during July and 13,400 jobs, year over year. Metro Albuquerque now has 380,000 wage jobs. As has been the case for some months, only education and health services and government added jobs during July.

Albuquerque retail is the loss leader, so to speak, with a 3,400 job, 7.7%, decline since July 2008. Professional and business services, a critical wealth producing sector, lost 2,500 jobs year over year, a 3.9% drop.

In percentage terms, metro Santa Fe (Santa Fe County) leads the four metro areas in job decline. Santa Fe is down 4.9%, or 3,300 jobs, from July 2008 to July 2009. A third of the lost jobs are construction jobs.

The Las Cruces metro area (Dona Ana County) has lost 2.8% of its wage jobs, year over year. That’s a drop of 1,900.

Las Cruces has lost 4,000 wage jobs the past two months. Most of those jobs are expected to reappear in August as schools and New Mexico State University hire for the school year.

Wage employment in the Farmington metro area (San Juan County) is down 1,100 jobs or 2.1% over the July to July year.

In July, New Mexico’s unemployment rate grew to 7%, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The rate was 4.2% in July 2008.

The state has lost 29,500 jobs, seasonally adjusted, over the July to July year. That’s more than the population of Carlsbad. There were 817,600 employed New Mexicans in July. 

The labor force shrank from 959,000 in July 2008 to 953,300 in July 2009 as an estimated 5,700 left the labor force for reasons that will run from simply stopping seeking work to leaving leaving the state.

The number of unemployed was 66,900 in July 2009, an increase of  26,500 from 40,400 in July 2008. During July, 2,000 more people were unemployed than during June, again on a seasonally adjusted basis.

New Mexico tied with Nevada for the third largest percentage drop (-0.5%) in employment between June and July.

A story today reported a drop in new unemployment compensation claims for the week of August 1. The Wall Street Journal saw “another glimmer of hope” of economic recovery.

Not in New Mexico. State data lags a week of so, meaning what is known here doesn’t quite compare to the nation. The 1,597 New Mexicans newly filing for unemployment during the week of July 25 were indeed 251 fewer than the 1,848 filing during the week of July 18, which in turn were 347 less than during the week of July 18. During 2008, new filings dropped for the same two weeks.

But…. New filings for the weeks of July 4 and 11 increased from the previous week of 2009 and were about double the comparable week of 2008. The 1,848 new filings during the week of July 18 were four times the same week of 2008 and the 1,597 filings for the July 25 week were six times the same week of 2008.

Today the Bureau of Economic Analysis released per capita and total personal income figures for metropolitan areas around the country.

Among New Mexico’s four metro areas, per capita income in Albuquerque grew the slowest, Farmington (think oil and gas) grew the fastest and Las Cruces and Santa Fe were in the middle. Santa Fe’s per capita income ($43,821 in 2008) ranked 37th nationally. For Albuquerque, the 2008 per capita income of $34,239, ranked 187th nationally, just below the midpoint. 

Farmington and Las Cruces are well down the national per capita income ranking because major components of each area’s population are poor and/or simply not in the mainstream economy where income gets recorded. For the Farmington metro, which is San Juan County, this refers to Native Americans. In Las Cruces—the metro is Dona Ana County—it is a function of being on the U.S.-Mexico border, location of the lowest incomes in the United States.

Per capita income rank was 279 for Farmington and 354 for Las Cruces. In 2008 per capita income grew 7.4% to $30,704 in Farmington and was up 4.9% to $26,366 in Las Cruces.

The 2008 per capita income rank was 130 for Colorado Springs, 338 for El Paso (also on the border), and for Tucson, which is close to the border.

In Midland, Texas, income jumped 8.1% in 2007 and 8.8% in 2008. Midland’s 2008 income of $57,615 ranked 6th nationally. It’s oil, oil, oil. The Midland income was the fastest growing in 2008.

McAllen, Texas, another border metro, ranked last at 366 in 2008 with an income of $19,377 per capita. Stamford, Connecticut, was first with $82,666.