In addition to the statewide stats, Errors of Enchantment analyzes job growth in the Land of Enchantment’s four metropolitan statistical areas, compared to the 49 MSAs found in the state’s five neighbors: Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas.
The latest numbers continue to disappoint. As depicted in the chart above, average job growth from January 2017 to January 2018, for the neighbor MSAs, was 1.9 percent. While Farmington tied the average — great news for a community that has long suffered from a severe jobs drought — Albuquerque grew by just 1.0 percent, Santa Fe expanded by 0.5 percent, and Las Cruces dropped by a disturbing 2.0 percent.
Utah’s MSAs — St. George (4.8 percent), Provo-Orem (4.5 percent), Ogden-Clearfield (2.4 percent), Salt Lake City (2.2 percent), and Logan (1.3 percent) — maintained their impressive performance, with four of the five topping the regional average. In Texas, Midland (10.3 percent) and Odessa (7.2 percent) continue to show that “green jobs” are something of a joke, when viewed against surging oil production in the Permian Basin.
How did Sandoval County stack up?
Thanks for the question, commissioner. The county was up 2.5 percent, according to the latest data (December 2016 and December 2017.) Much better than the ABQ metro as a whole.