The good news? New Mexico and Albuquerque/Rio Rancho continue to outperform the nation.

The bad news? That doesn’t matter… we are deeply in the hole regardless of what the rest of the country is doing.

U.S. Unemployment Rate: 9.7% in August

New Mexico: 7.5%
Albuquerque/Rio Rancho: 7.4%

Year-To-Year Job Loss

New Mexico: 30,900
Albuquerque/Rio Rancho: 14,500

We have to go back to the mid-40’s to find a similar decline in jobs. And, in a state where job growth is traditionally in the 1-2% range, it will take us a long time to get back to a level playing field.