Is Albuquerque’s job force “Netflix-ready?” and what kinds of jobs will the entertainment giant be hiring for?
Those questions have come up from many people as Netflix is promising up to 1,000 new jobs a year with its planned Albuquerque production hub.
An Albuquerque city councilor tells KRQE News 13 that Netflix says it could begin hiring and working out of its future facility as soon as the new year.
“They’re not waiting five years to do it, they wanted to get started in January,” said Pat Davis, an Albuquerque City Councilor.
Davis and other city officials are now talking about the ideas of job fairs and what training programs are already there to help locals find future Netflix work.
“We have a really short timeline to start building the workforce and building the capacity here,” said Davis.
Netflix has promised up to 1,000 new film and TV jobs a year and $1 billion in business with its New Mexico facility.
“We want to look at things like a job fair,” said Davis. “It’s not too early to say that we should be doing that today.”
While there is a core of film students training in Albuquerque’s higher-ed facilities like CNM and UNM, Alicia Keyes of the Albuquerque Film Office believes Netflix may have a hard time filling all of its job in Albuquerque in its first few years.
“We are going to have a few growing pains because we’re not going to have enough people to work,” said Keyes.
However, CNM says it’s ready to help fill the job training gap.
“Not only in our film program, but also in our electrical trades, our construction and many other areas,” said Dr. Kathy Winograd, President of CNM.
The college says it already has the educational programs it needs to supply Netflix’s expected workforce and they’re prepared to add new types of training.
“It’s always great when you have something very strong that you’re building on rather than starting from scratch, and we have that,” said Winograd.
Students like Emmett Keegan say they’re pumped to hopefully be a part of it.
“If there’s a high demand for crew, there’s going to be a big turn around coming out of this CNM building,” said Keegan.
CNM’s Film Technician program has been going on for 15 years. Some of their alumni are already working on Netflix programs.
Netflix still hasn’t formally announced exactly which jobs they’ll hire for or when. However, city officials are hoping to hold job fairs around the time they start hiring, which may be January.
