NM SOCKED WITH 6.3% JOBLESS INCREASE IN ONE DAY

By Mark Scheinbaum

 

 

            ANGEL FIRE, NM (19 Feb. 2009)—What if you woke up and found out the “recession” means that the numbers of your friends and neighbors in your home state, New Mexico rocketed up an astounding 6.3% in one single, solitary, sad and sorry day?

 

            You won’t hear any TV or radio reports or read any news articles framing the crisis in these turns, but I actually went to the raw numbers and with a tiny bit of poetic license which comes from being burdened with actually having owned and managed businesses, I am fairly certain my numbers are solid.

 

            In one 24 hour period New Mexico whose officials cautiously grinned that a 3.9-4.9 per cent unemployment rate was among the ten lowest the country, got rocked and socked with bad news.

 

1.      Zangara Dodge, the state’s largest Dodge dealer based in Albuquerque with an omnipresent ad budget, huge inventory “floor plan” and active service department closed its doors and fired 150 people. A skeleton crew returned to work today—some possibly without pay—to maintain the dignity of the brand and make sure that folks with cars in the service bays would have their work completed. The owner of the 18-year-old dealership said he is working on a tentative sale of the franchise. Reality check: there are probably another few hundred runners, detail people, part-timers, couriers and local parts suppliers who are finished, not to mention transporters and title people so the real impact might be double or triple this number.

 

2.      Eclipse Aviation at one time one of  the state’s largest employers “furloughed” its remaining 800 workers. The builder of compact commuter jets has already received more than $25 million in tax breaks from the City of Albuquerque plus other state incentives. It carried $1 billion or more into bankruptcy last year, and still has an on again, off again takeover by the Dutch firm ETIRC Aviation pending. Eclipse chief Mike McConnell issued a statement that the “global financial crisis” has delayed the final court-approved deal out of Chapter 11. Reality Check: 30 planes are still on the assembly line. Lawsuits for non delivery and various alleged contractual violations are pending, and once again the 800 is the tip of the iceberg as the domino effect probably makes for 1,400 or 1,500 jobs gone.

 

3.      Chevron Mining (previously Molycorp) of Questa near the Colorado border laid off 230 workers after previously letting 85 others go. The mine is a major Northern New Mexico employer which is a key to economic stability from Taos to the entire “Enchanted Circle” area and spreading into southern Colorado. Retailers, schools, churches, taverns, resorts in a sparsely populated area of the state will instantly feel the pain.

The mineral molybdenum is used to harden steel in fabrication and Chevron said the recession has cut sales and manufacturing of its clients and forces the local cutback. Since this is perhaps a 35 minute drive from where I live I conservatively place the real number of jobs impacted at two or three times this number—easily 600 people out of work.

 

 

            So, the official news media account is for  about 1,200 jobs lost in announces in one 24-hour period this week, but my real world number means approximately 3,000 people fired, laid off with little chance of recall, and related supported industries involved.

 

 

            The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that at the start of the year New Mexico had a theoretical eligible  workforce of 966,000 people and actually had 918,000 listed as employed.

            Keep in mind that New Mexico’s population is estimated around 2.5 million or less than the Metro Cleveland, Ohio area. Plus poverty, social services, educational achievement etc. already keep New Mexico in the dismal 45-49 rankings among the 50 states.

 

           The federal statistics showed  the year starting with unemployment variously at 3.9-4.3 per cent with some configurations including agricultural and season workers computed up to a total of 4.9 per cent total unemployment by last week. Remember, this does not include the “hard core unemployed” who have exhausted or did not qualify for unemployment insurance and are still out of work.

 

            My research showed 47,800 unemployed at the start of the year or 5.25% of the employable work force out of a job by the government’s own statistics.

 

            If anything I think my 3,000 one day job loss pop is conservative. The estimate of at least 50,800 people now unemployed creates a 6.3% increase in the number of people added to the jobless roster in one day.  (Three thousand is 6.3% of the 47,800 previous total).

 

            In the understatement of the week, the Eclipse Aviation chief told reporters in a conference call:

“The worldwide financial turmoil is affecting the completion of the sale of Eclipse assets,” McConnell said. “It’s taking longer than anyone thought it would.”

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