Salt Lake City.....lessons for Albuquerque (houses, tech jobs, high school)
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Let's get back to the issue at hand. Why does Albuquerque's economy lag behind other cities of comparable size and what can be done to improve it?
Albuquerque's economy doesn't lag behind other cities of comparable size, it's in the middle of the pack and leads most of its closest peers. Below are all of the metro areas in Albuquerque's size range, ranked according to metro GDP per capita. They are bookended in population by El Paso at the smallest end to Tucson at the largest end. Tucson and El Paso of course are our nearest, closest peers and look at how we outperform both. As I said before, things aren't quite so dire for Albuquerque as some would like to portray.
Bridgeport - $98,256,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 943,457 population = $104,145 per capita
Omaha - $65,053,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 932,217 population = $69,783 per capita
Honolulu - $67,495,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 986,429 population = $68,424 per capita
Albany - $54,302,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 882,130 population = $61,558 per capita
Oxnard - $50,848,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 850,802 population = $60,165 per capita
Tulsa - $57,747,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 991,610 population = $58,236 per capita
New Haven $45,252,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 857,794 population = $52,754 per capita Albuquerque - $44,051,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 912,897 population = $48,254 per capita
Knoxville - $41,459,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 875,797 population = $47,339 per capita
Greenville - $42,109,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 895,422 population = $47,027 per capita
Worcester - $43,750,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 942,303 population = $46,429 per capita
Fresno - $42,045,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 986,542 population = $42,619 per capita
Bakersfield - $37,340,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 888,988 population = $42,003 per capita
Tucson - $39,034,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 1,027,502 population = $37,989 per capita
El Paso - $29,033,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 845,145 population = $34,353 per capita
McAllen - $20,405,000,000 metro GDP ÷ 858,323 population = $23,773 per capita
Albuquerque's next step and easiest goal to achieve is to increase our per capita GDP to over $50,000
The highest GDP values and growth come from industries like tech, finance, insurance and extraction. Considering that, the easiest way to increase Albuquerque's GDP is through tech. Albuquerque is lucky to have a huge tech driver in Sandia National Labs. Our homegrown tech scene has been helped tremendously by the presence of Sandia. Albuquerque needs to leverage Sandia for even more growth and innovation in our tech scene. Thankfully, this is already happening and increasing rapidly. Kirtland and the Air Force Research Laboratory is also a great asset for our city. Even Los Alamos has impact on tech growth in Albuquerque. UNM is another great driver of innovation and growth in Albuquerque as a Tier 1 research institution. The UNM-led Innovate ABQ along with the Sandia Science & Technology Park, Max Q at Kirtland, Destination Sunport, ABQid, FatPipe, etc. will all help to grow Albuquerque's tech scene in coming years. Albuquerque already recognizes all of this and people here are already working hard to make things happen in our city and to create a success story right here in Albuquerque.
As evidence of these efforts paying off I present an updated tally of recent jobs announcements in Albuquerque since last year. Tech jobs are highlighted in bold and represent over half the jobs created or announced:
Sandia National Laboratories - 1,900
Netflix - 1,000
TaskUs - 695 Intel - 536
NBCUniversal - 330 Facebook - 300
CareNet - 244
Santa Ana Star Casino Hotel - 230
LSI - 178
Isleta Resort & Casino - 150 Northrop Grumman - 150 3D Glass - 139 Jabil - 120 2ndGear - 100 RS21 - 95
Ben E. Keith - 93
Sandia Pueblo - 86 Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technology - 85
Amfab Steel - 80
Vitality Works - 80
Southwest Creations Collaborative - 77 SolAero Technologies - 70 Science Applications International - 67 The Aerospace Corporation - 60
CSI Aviation - 60 Raytheon - 60 Indica Labs - 58 Rural Sourcing - 50 Lavu - 45 Advanced Network Management - 40
Bureau of Land Management - 40
Roses Southwest Papers - 38 TechSource - 26 Xpansiv - 25
Phat Steel - 20 Dynetics - 12 MZA Associates Corp. - 10 Dev505 - 5
Total jobs created or announced - 7,354 Tech jobs created or announced - 3,953
Now tell me with a straight face that Albuquerque is stagnant or that we aren't doing our best to improve our economy and standing as a city.
Yeah, my nephews are already working in retail. That's the problem. Those types of jobs don't go anywhere.
You're giving up on Albuquerque??
That is not the problem. That is THEIR problem. It is them that made choices to not continue their education or get a skill that would move them out of retail. I have 2 nephews and 1 niece that is doing very well in Albuquerque. All 3 are above $60k per year and they are 24, 26 and 28. One nephew went to mechanics school straight out of HS and is now a heavy equipment mechanic. Another obtained a welding certification and is now working for BNSF and my niece is a nurse doing very well.
I did some googling. This - https://nmpartnership.com/incentives...est-employers/ - is a list of NM's largest employers. Couldn't find one just for ABQ, but this one is sortable by city. The year isn't mentioned, but I'm assuming this list is either up-to-date or pretty close to it.
This one - https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/data/librar...employers.html - is a 2018 list of UT's largest employers. It can be set by county via the dropdown at the top right of the list. Selecting Salt Lake County returns a list that should match pretty well to the Salt Lake City metro area. Employment numbers are by range rather than specific numbers for each employer, but they are still useful.
Some observations:
-The largest SLC employers employ a lot more people than the largest ABQ employers. Of course, the state of UT is listed as #2 for SLC and a fair number of those employees probably work outside of SLC. But look at the # of employees for the Univ. of UT, Intermountain Health Care and the US Government. And even the employers below these have a lot of employees - there are 11 employers that employ more than 5000 employees each. The size of the employee work forces are much smaller in ABQ throughout the two listings. 59 SLC employers employ 1000+ employees, only 13 ABQ employers are over 1000+.
- The largest employers in both areas are dominated by public sector (government) organizations, and also health care. But SLC clearly has a more diversified mix of large employers (more private sector companies). No real surprise here -anyone in the know has been talking about how NM needs to get more private employers and move away from our strong dependence on government employment.
In conclusion, SLC has a much larger employment base than ABQ. This has already been pointed out by other commenters. ABQ needs to grow our employees (doh), and it would be best to do this with more private employers. Which is exactly what appears to be happening locally, as ABQalex and others have been saying.
Albuquerque's economy doesn't lag behind other cities of comparable size,
Someone here posted that the GDP of Salt Lake City is more than twice that of Albuquerque. Thanks for posting your list, it helps to put things into perspective.
Honestly many of the cities on that list aren't a portrait of rosiness. Honolulu has a stagnant economy - the only industry of note there are the military bases - and the bottom of the totem pole in that economy are the locals. The cities in the Central Valley - Fresno, Bakersfield - are rough places where people tend to leave to look for greener pastures.
Where are you getting that GDP list from? I want to see the other cities that are in the 800k-1M population.
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Below are all of the metro areas in Albuquerque's size range
In the entire U.S. this list of fifteen are the only cities in the 800K - 1M range???
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Considering that, the easiest way to increase Albuquerque's GDP is through tech.
I agree. The next question is: why is there not more tech in Albuquerque? Outside Sandia and the military and Intel (which have been around for ages), there's very little. Almost nothing in the way of private-sector tech. Why is this? I'm not asking sarcastically, I truly want to know what the factors are that have prevented Albq from being an attractive place for tech.
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As evidence of these efforts paying off I present an updated tally of recent jobs announcements in Albuquerque since last year.
Let's hope that these - particularly Netflix and TaskUs - come through.
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Now tell me with a straight face that Albuquerque is stagnant or that we aren't doing our best to improve our economy and standing as a city.
Netflix and TaskUs would be big wins. The rest of the list is very small and isn't going to have any impact. 50, 60, 70 jobs ..... that many people are hired and fired on a daily basis within a half mile of where I live here in Sunnyvale. It's a drop in the bucket.
Let's hope the top two on that list - Netflix and TaskUs - pull through and hopefully this will be the needed spark to attract more large employers. And hopefully said employers will due their duty and giving hiring preference, including managerial and lead engineer positions - to locals.
Excuse me. My one nephew is in his third year of college. He studies History because that's what he is interested in. The likely job for him later is teaching which certainly will pay far below $60K. So sorry he's not studying mechanics or nursing like your nephews. Meanwhile he lives in the "extended" War Zone because that's the only place he can afford.
is a list of NM's largest employers. Couldn't find one just for ABQ, but this one is sortable by city.
Original research. I like it.
Ok, first thing that's immediately apparent on the NM list is there's zero private sector tech (except Intel and three others) on that entire list. That's the first major thing that needs to be changed. This is a glaring problem. Why is it that we've got two strong engineering schools - NM Tech and UNM - and no jobs for them when they graduate?
Difficult to compare the NM list which has 250 entries with the UT list which only has 35. But as you said:
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-The largest SLC employers employ a lot more people than the largest ABQ employers.... The size of the employee work forces are much smaller in ABQ throughout the two listings.
Interesting. I think you're onto something here. Why would this be? Are those SLC employers organized better? Are they better at acquiring more clients/customers? Does their customer base extend outside the UT area? Is their tax base/operating cost lower hence they are able to put more money into marketing and sales?
How many of those UT employers were locally spawned versus being branches of companies HQ'ed elsewhere?
I've already got a lot on my plate, but if I can find some time I'll start looking into those questions. Ideally what we need is to compile that and put together a document that can be used to lobby local politics.
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ABQ needs to grow our employees (doh), and it would be best to do this with more private employers. Which is exactly what appears to be happening locally, as ABQalex and others have been saying.
So what changes need to be made for this to occur? Others have mentioned NM is not tax-friendly to business. What other changes need to happen? With a list of said changes then lobby public officials and elect out-of-office those who aren't implementing those changes and elect into-office those who will.
I love how you always come up with caveats, negative views and have an excuse as to why it isn't good enough when responding to what is clearly very positive economic development in Albuquerque. Nearly 4,000 tech jobs is nothing to sneeze at and would most assuredly be the envy of most places our size.
I also love how you continue to try to dismiss and cast doubt by asking for sources that have already been provided. Quit being lazy and look up these things for yourself. Go back to the beginning of the thread and look for the link I gave to the 2017 metro area GDP release by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Google "2017 U.S. Census metro population estimates" like I did to find the metro areas within Albuquerque's size range for 2017 (to match and calculate the 2017 GDP numbers).
None of this is hard to do. Everything I post can be found online, because that's where I find it.
I gave the 15 metro areas that are closest in size to Albuquerque, both larger and smaller. I stopped at El Paso and Tucson on each end because they are the absolute closest peers Albuquerque has in this country. You are free to produce your own list and to compare whatever cities you like with Albuquerque.
It becomes painfully obvious that you don't live in Albuquerque and are unaware of what actually is happening here with every post you make. Netflix already is operating here and cranking out productions. Ditto NBCUniversal. TaskUs has not opened yet and is delayed due to a company restructuring resulting from a new financial partnership.
However, TaskUs still lists Albuquerque as being the site of their next U.S. operation on their website. TaskUs is especially great not just because of its size, but the fact that it will be going downtown and helping to revitalize the area. It will be located at First Plaza and will more than fill the void left there when Gap moved its corporate back office to North I-25 a few years ago.
Like the rest of the city, Downtown Albuquerque is doing great at creating and attracting jobs. Below is the list of jobs moved or created downtown since last year:
I agree. The next question is: why is there not more tech in Albuquerque? Outside Sandia and the military and Intel (which have been around for ages), there's very little. Almost nothing in the way of private-sector tech. Why is this? I'm not asking sarcastically, I truly want to know what the factors are that have prevented Albq from being an attractive place for tech.
Let's hope that these - particularly Netflix and TaskUs - come through.
Netflix and TaskUs would be big wins. The rest of the list is very small and isn't going to have any impact. 50, 60, 70 jobs ..... that many people are hired and fired on a daily basis within a half mile of where I live here in Sunnyvale. It's a drop in the bucket.
Let's hope the top two on that list - Netflix and TaskUs - pull through and hopefully this will be the needed spark to attract more large employers. And hopefully said employers will due their duty and giving hiring preference, including managerial and lead engineer positions - to locals.
They aren't drops in the bucket in Albuquerque, whose tech scene is built upon smaller companies. As I said before, you have to look at the bigger picture. Those hundreds of small tech firms in Albuquerque add up. As I've posted before, the Sandia Science & Technology Park alone has over 3,000 people employed at companies located there.
There are hundreds more tech companies spead around the city from North I-25 to the Airport to Uptown to Downtown to the Westside.
And most of these announcements are additions to existing operations in the city. For example, the Jabil 3-D printing operation will be going along with the existing 360 employs at Nypro, which is a subsidiary of Jabil. Northrop Grumman will grow to 300 employees locally with this expansion. Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technology will grow to 335 employees in Albuquerque. That will be offset by the layoffs at Honeywell Aerospace, but still, at least many of the layed-off Honeywell Aerospace workers will find employment at Honeywell FM&T.
Excuse me. My one nephew is in his third year of college. He studies History because that's what he is interested in. The likely job for him later is teaching which certainly will pay far below $60K. So sorry he's not studying mechanics or nursing like your nephews. Meanwhile he lives in the "extended" War Zone because that's the only place he can afford.
So you want to blame the city for supposedly not providing good jobs for young people but don't want us to blame your nephew for studying something that could actually get him a good-paying job?? You don't make sense and talk out of both ends.
Even still, the starting salary of $41,000 for an APS teacher with the bare minimum of education is nothing to sneeze at in a place like Albuquerque that has a reasonable cost of living. You could easily afford and qualify for the workforce housing which has been built downtown over the last decade. Or you could rent an apartment or small house in the neighborhoods adjacent to Downtown like the Raynolds Addition. You'd be in the thick of an awesome scene and be able to get in on the ground-floor of a great downtown revival. That's an awesome lifestyle for a young person just getting started.
Moving up with raises and tenure and continued education and now you're getting more to a $60,000 salary and over. At that point you are doing very well in Albuquerque. With that salary you could afford to rent the nicest apartments of up to two bedrooms in Downtown Albuquerque and a 4-bedroom house in most of the rest of the city. You could afford the mortgage on a 3-br house in areas like I-40 West on a $60,000 salary in Albuquerque, marry another working person and you'd both then be able to start a family.
That's the absolute definition of middle class life and the American Dream.
As an aside and since NMHacker brought up welding, look at two of the companies with jobs announcements, AmFab Steel and Phat Steel. Both are metal fabrication operations. Welding is another trade that pays well for young people to look into. Not every young person has to go into tech to have a good-paying job. Learn a trade, get a skill! Those kinds of jobs like plumbing, electrical, welding, construction, etc. pay well, are in demand and facing shortages across the country. Opportunity exists to get one's self ahead in this world.
Computer and Mathematical Jobs in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA account for 2.3% of Jobs in the area. Architecture and Engineering is at 3.2%.
Computer and Mathematical Jobs in the Albuquerque account for 3.4% of Jobs in the area. Architecture and Engineering is at 3.3%.
Computer and Mathematical Jobs in the Salt Lake City account for 2.7% of Jobs in the area. Architecture and Engineering is at 3.5%.
But, but, but Albuquerque lacks tech jobs.
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