1,400 jobs lost in ABQ in a year

Unemployment rate over March-to-march period slipped to 7.1%

The Albuquerque area lost 1,400 jobs, a 0.4 percent decline, between March 2012 and March 2013, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

The area’s unemployment rate declined in the same period from 7.4 percent to 7.1 percent, while the civilian workforce grew by 1,100 people to 396,700. The BLS cautioned its numbers were not seasonally adjusted and are subject to revision.

Employment declined 1.4 percent in the Farmington area and 0.9 percent in Las Cruces. Santa Fe area payroll employment increased 0.2 percent in the 12-month period.

Unemployment rates fell in nearly 90 percent of large U.S. cities in March, although most of the declines likely occurred because more Americans stopped looking for work, rather than found jobs, the BLS reported.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate dipped to 7.6 percent in March from 7.7 percent in February. Fewer people said they were unemployed, but only because they gave up on their job hunts.

Hiring slowed sharply. Employers added only 88,000 jobs in March, a steep drop from the average gains of 188,000 a month in the preceding six months.

Still, there were signs of long-term improvement. Nearly 160 metro areas had unemployment rates of 7 percent or below, up from 113 a year earlier.

The lowest unemployment rate was in Midland, Texas, at 3.1 percent. Yuma, Ariz., and El Centro, Calif., had the highest rates, at 26 percent and 23.7 percent, respectively. The two areas are adjacent and include a large number of migrant farm workers.

The metro unemployment data isn’t seasonally adjusted for trends and can be more volatile than the national data.