If you are looking for work, Las Cruces is the place to be right now. Southern New Mexico's largest city has maintain very low unemployment rates since last year and a recent study the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research shows that there are actually more jobs available than qualified workers.
The question is twofold. For workers: Are the jobs here good paying? And employers: Is the labor pool adequate?
The UNM report analyzed data through 2006 for Las Cruces and its downtown area. It concludes that while the unemployment rate is indeed low, so is the pay. "Jobs created by the Las Cruces economy are, on average, low paying," the study found.
Salaries/good jobs
Richard Wagner has been the area director of the Las Cruces office of Workforce Solutions — formerly the state Department of Labor — for nine years. The job market has diversified over that time, he said.
"We have more technical jobs and jobs with better wages and better benefits," he said. "There's been an improvement in the type of job here."
Steve Vierck, president and CEO of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, said that salaries have jumped in Doña Ana County for MVEDA-assisted jobs.
"It was $6.75 an hour five years ago," he said of the average pay rate. "Now it's $12.64 an hour."
But there is still plenty of room to improve.
According to the UNM study, "Per capita and household incomes in Las Cruces are low relative to other metropolitan areas in New Mexico; since 1990, growth of incomes in Las Cruces has lagged behind that of other metropolitan areas as well as non-metropolitan areas ... Low incomes are not limited to a single group, but seem to be a structural characteristic at all levels."
Jim Berry, president of the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, said he also has witnessed an improving job market.
"There's employment. We all know it doesn't pay quite as much and the compensation levels aren't as high as other places," he said. "But that's improving."
Vierck said salaries need to continue to rise and hi-tech jobs are a good place to start.
"We made that elevation but we kind of plateaued," he said of salaries. "That's why we've got to focus on industries like aerospace. That's why the spaceport is so important to the industry of the future." Spaceport America is slated to be built in southern Sierra County.
Karen Trujillo, who owns On The Move Property Brokers LLC., and serves as president of the Hispano Chamber of Commerce de Las Cruces, said an emphasis on attracting more professional, higher-paying jobs is a must.
"There are still service-oriented jobs, but it's nice to see that MVEDA and all the partnerships are focusing on the need to offer incentives for the higher-paying jobs as well," she said. "The recruitment of physicians, the recruitment of professionals, through their business they will offer more job opportunities."
Labor force
There are jobs to be had. The UNM study found the "Las Cruces economy creates more jobs than are demanded by the labor force living in the city ... the remaining jobs in Las Cruces are filled by residents of the county and surrounding communities."
That means employees can be more selective.
"What we're seeing right now is it's very competitive," Wagner said. "Employers are beginning to understand that they have to offer a little bit more, whether it be wages or benefits or a better flexible schedule."
Las Cruces Machine's Bryn Davis, who also is chairman of the MVEDA board, said he's been hiring employees in Las Cruces for 15 years. He said the issue of whether the labor pool has improved is not entirely clear.
"It's gone up and it's gone down," he said. "The pool hasn't gone down, but the market has gotten tighter, so there's less to pick from. The water's not as a clean because the pond's pretty low."
Michelle Cornell was recently hired at Las Cruces Machine. She's been on the job for nearly six months and she said she appreciates having a job when many factory jobs across the nation are moving to other countries.
"In manufacturing, everything's getting sent over," she said.
Shawnda Friday has worked for Las Cruces Machine for nearly a decade. She said she has seen good and bad workers come through, but she said the company does a good job hiring employees.
"Most of them are willing to do their job, once in awhile you get one (who doesn't)," she said. "(The company) is decent about it; they don't start people out at minimum wage."
Davis, with a tight labor pool, there is less room for error. He said many applicants are either great or terrible, with few in between.
"I would say we see a bigger disparity; we see good ones and bad ones You don't find a lot of C's," he said. "We find ones that breeze right through it (application process) and are pretty good and we find people who are horrible."
Better-trained workers
A constant refrain from many business owners in Doña Ana County has been: We need a better-trained, better-educated work force. Vierck and others have said the issue is key for economic development because companies considering a move to southern New Mexico first check out what kind of employees they can expect to find.
Wagner said education and training is the key to improving the work force
"The educational (institutions) are making it more accessible for people who don't have the funding to go to school," he said. "They're making it a little easier to access."
Growing different industries
One of the weaknesses in Las Cruces' economy, the UNM report states, is in the area of professional services and manufacturing.
"With the exception of mining, professional, scientific and technical services is by far the greatest source of lost revenues in Las Cruces ... the Las Cruces economy sends an estimated $36.8 million per year for these services to other parts of the state. Manufacturing accounts for losses of more than $20 million per year," according to the study.
A light at the end of the tunnel, though, could come in the form of Spaceport America. Even though the facility will be built north of Doña Ana County, near Upham, N.M., Wayne Savage of DMJM Aviation — the design and engineering firm hired by the Spaceport Authority — says it will have a significant impact on the business community for the entire area, including Las Cruces.
"Very conservatively, it could easily create 1,100 to 1,200 jobs and easily be a billion-dollar impact on the economy," he said. "There will be requirements for all sort of educational levels."
An industry that is already growing in the Las Cruces area is health care. The UNM study reports that one of the strengths of Las Cruces is "the town's function as a regional retail and service center, including health care."
The study shows that health care and social services draw an average of nearly $180 million into the economy.
