January unemployment statistics are finally out. (I suspect the short month is partly responsible for the delay -- as well as needing to fill requests from the legislative branch which is in the middle of its 60-day session.) As usual with statistics, how you look at them matters a great deal.
- New Mexico's rate is 4.7% while the national rate is 7.6%.
Looks pretty good until you see the steadily increasing local numbers:
- In January of '08, our rate was 3.8%.
Far more damaging, however, is the rate of
job growth. Over the past year we are at a (1.0%). That is the first year of negative growth since 1991 -- more than 17 years ago.
The Albuquerque/Rio Rancho area unemployment data mirrors the state:
- January '09 rate is 5.5%
- January '08 was 3.7%
- Job growth was (0.9%). That is the fourth month in a row of year-to-year negative numbers and the rate of decline has been accelerating.
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