Errors of Enchantment has repeatedly documented how “all the corporate-welfare schemes implemented to promote aerospace in the Land of Enchantment [are] yielding zilch in results.” But more bad news arrived yesterday, when Honeywell Aerospace “told employees at its 500,000-square-foot plant … that all Albuquerque-based aerospace work would be relocated to … sites in Arizona, Florida and Puerto Rico over the next year.”
No details have yet emerged about how many jobs will be lost, but employees told the Albuquerque Journal that “the workforce totals up to 500, including those working for Bendix King, a subsidiary that does not appear to be affected.”
Whatever the number of layoffs, the corporation’s decision follows a clear trend. As the chart above shows, New Mexico employment in the sector the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calls “Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing” has dropped 64 percent in the last decade. Crony capitalism, “investments” in preschool, and subsidies from Washington don’t appear to be getting the job done. Maybe it’s time for a different approach?
