New Mexico continues to buck national economic trends by posting stronger employment and income growth than the rest of the country. Employment in New Mexico grew 1.1% in the 12 months that ended June 30/08. Personal income in the 12 months that ended March 31/08 grew 5.5% in New Mexico compared to 4.8% nationally.

New mexico was able to overcome some serious manufacturing job losses and continued flat performance in the residential construction sector to achieve the growth. The health care and social assistance sectors of the economy added 3,800 jobs in the12 months ending June 30/08. Local government jobs grew 1.9% during this time, most of this growth thanks to Indian casino hiring. Indian casinos are tribal government-operated enterprises, so casino jobs are classified as government hirings. Information sector hiring was up 1,300 jobs year over year. Some of the hiring was in call centers, but film production contributed a good share of the jobs. Film production is probably a bigger contributor he economy that hiring numbers show. Many of the production workers hired locally are self employed, so their activity isn't completly captured in payroll data.