Background: News 13 state jobs research

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - KRQE News 13 Reporter Michael Herzenberg's research in job announcements from the state was conducted from May through July.

Included in the list are companies that with state participation announced they were starting-up or coming to New Mexico with 50 or more direct jobs.

He made numerous attempts to reach an officer or a spokesperson from every company. That entailed challenges as some of the businesses are defunct.

When he was unable to reach the business, the information he garnered came from at least two secondary sources such as politicians, city managers or economic development leaders. In a few cases, the exact number of jobs may rise or fall weekly.

He excluded companies from the actual story the state announced were coming in the year 2010 as he felt it was unfair to expect them to be up and running so quickly.

You may be asking why certain companies or entities were not included in this story.

Eclipse Aviation’s starting announcements predate Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration.

Advent Solar was founded in 2002 before Richardson took office. It secured an exclusive license from Sandia National Laboratories in 2003 and expanded during the Richardson administration, most notably in 2005 with the announced addition of 125 jobs.

Advent laid off workers through 2009 and sold nearly all of its assets to Applied Materials in November.

Several efforts related to the federal government were not included because either the state was not extensively active in the economic development end of the announcements or may not have had enough of an impact on the move. Those include expansions by the U.S. Forest Service, Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The film industry presents several companies that fall both inside and outside the parameters of the story. There has been much coverage in the media on its expansion. However, one major problem as it pertains to this story is the temporary nature of jobs in film production.

Spaceport America also presents several companies that both fall in line with and don’t fall in line with the parameters of the story.

However, here is the employment data gleaned from the Spaceport Authority in May:

Approximately 350-450, depending on the phase of the construction the spaceport is at this point.

650 security access badges issued to contractors to date.

13 out of 14 total spaceport contracts issued to New Mexico contractors.

Approximately 25 percent of construction jobs come to contractors and subcontractors in Doña Ana County

The number of permanent jobs created thus far is limited to NMSA staff and the contracted support responsible for day-to day-functions: approximately 65 jobs.

Once operational, the direct long-term jobs are expected begin at around 25-50 for NMSA and 75-150 for tenant Virgin Galactic. Over time these numbers will possibly double for up to 400 people onsite with a 2x multiplier for indirect suppliers within the local economy. That total is 1,200 jobs within the first couple years.

Tourism is not accounted for in these numbers.