Unemployment Inches UP -- Again

No surprise... we continue to do better than the rest of the country. But, what we do have is about as bad as it has been for more than 50 years.

For the state as a whole:

• Unemployment was 5.9% in March vs. 3.9% for March of '08.
• Over-the-year job growth was (1.9%) and that translates into over 16,000 jobs lost.
• 1954 was the last time the state's job growth was this bad.
• Just 2 of 13 industry classes posted gains: health care and government.

The Albuquerque/Rio Rancho picture is no prettier:

• Unemployment was 6.6% in March vs. 3.8% a year ago.
• Over-the-year job growth was (2%) -- subtracting 7,700 jobs from the local economy.
• Just 3 of the job classes posted gains: health services, government and information (which is the classification for the growing film industry in the area).

And, believe it or not, our data puts us in a very favorable light vs. other states. We ranked 12th vs. other states. (Only three states and the District of Columbia were in positive territory.)

Yuck!