N. M. economy in fragile
balance

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - New Mexico suffered through 2008 losing jobs and businesses, but the uncertainty of 2009 is tempered by the prospect of hiring by new and existing employers.

Still the old year ended on a down note.  The company that planned to revolutionize general aviation with the least expensive personal jet ever generated the most negative news late in the year when Eclipse Aviation laid off almost half its workforce and declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

What happens to the 945 jobs still left at Eclipse depends on who buys the company on the auction block in two weeks.

But that loss could be countered by Fidelity Investments plans to hire 1,500 people at a new human resource service center at Mesa del Sol. Three hundred employees already work at a temporary site north.

The metro area ended 2007 losing roughly 1,000 positions at Intel in Rio Rancho but will start 2009 with Hewlett-Packard hiring for a service center near Rio Rancho City Hall. HP has said it wants to employ 1,300 people by 2012.

"The economy is challenging all across the country, but New Mexico is in a little better shape than other places," Lt. Governor Diane Denish told KRQE News 13. Investments in alternative energy and movie and television production have helped to sustain the economy, she added.

Solo Cup, one of Belen's largest employers, will close manufacturing in February eliminating more than 200 jobs. But once again comes the promise of an upswing with California-based Signet Solar planning a manufacturing plant in Belen within two years that' could bring 600 new jobs.

Statewide we lost thousands of construction jobs as home building dried up, but economists say an increase in health care and government hirings helped make that up.

Hollywood's action in New Mexico continues to grow.

"We've have as many movies going right now as we've ever had," Denish said.

Even the boom-and-bust mining industry may show some balance. Copper mines near Silver City are laying off hundreds as uranium companies tout possible jobs near Mount Taylor. However regulatory requirements leave a return of uranium production to the Grants area in the planning stages.