Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
If your list of achievements for 2013 includes a new job or career in eastern New Mexico, goal recommendations would depend on what you're looking for.
If you're just looking for the job with the best pay, that seems to be surgeon, with a salary of $261,094 per year. General practice physicians follow at $230,894 annually.
If you haven't undergone the 10 or so years of post-college education to become a physician, however, other health care careers with less required preparation are plentiful, according to job training and placement officials.
Tony Bullocks: CNJ Staff Photo
Elizabeth Hudson, a health services aide at the Senior Citizen Resident Center, logs in resident medications Friday at the nurse's station. Hudson has worked as a health service aide for six months and hopes to get into nursing at a later date.
Health care is currently eastern New Mexico's hottest industry for training and jobs, according to John Hemphill, manager or Workforce Connection facilities in eastern New Mexico. Renewable energy, wind and solar, is another thriving area for training and jobs.
Hemphill works closely with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions to operate the Workforce Connection facilities and coordinate job training through the Workforce Investment Act.
Five of DWS's top 10 positions in terms of job openings are in health care and related areas, including registered nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, and medical scientists. Completing the top 10 list are retail sales persons, food preparation and service, first-line supervisors in retail, customer service representatives, and first-line supervisors in food preparation.
Jai Oyler, an agent with Itsquest, a Clovis employment services agency, said there are gaps in many skilled labor areas. Young welders, for instance, are not coming along fast enough to replace those who are retiring, she said. Electric utilities, she said, are facing skilled worker shortages in many key areas.
"They're seeing shortages of hundreds of thousands of workers nationally over the next 10 years," she said. She also said Itsquest has been getting requests for construction workers at Cannon Air Force Base and for a variety of positions at Sunland, the Portales-based processor of peanut products, as it readies to reopen after being shut down by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to salmonella contamination.
In addition, she said, the Tres Amigas project near Clovis will need many construction workers when work begins this year.
DWS also publishes a list of "careers in demand." These are occupations that are expected to see the greatest number of new positions from 2010 to 2020, as a percentage of jobs in place in 2010.
The top 10 on this list include:
Sadly, in many cases, the number of applicants with skill in some fields far outweighs the demand for those specialties. In the 12-county Eastern Workforce Area the most applicants per job were seen in:
Curry County's most active current employers as of Dec. 27, according to DWS's labor statistics division, are the Sierra Nevada company with 55 posted openings, which include openings such as aircraft technical administrative assistant and logistics support. Lockheed Martin, the aircraft company, offered 26 positions, including electronics technician, logistics management analyst, aviation mechanic and field engineer. Both are contractors at Cannon. Presbyterian Health Care and Presbyterian Health Care Services followed with a combined total of 33 positions, including housekeeper, operating room technician, nursing tech, and registered nurse.
In Roosevelt County, only two employers listed more than 10 openings on Dec. 27. They were Eastern New Mexico University with 38 positions, including maintenance and teaching positions, followed by Dairy Farmers of America with 13, including processing trade positions.
Statewide, DWS reported that for November, the most recent month for which data were reported, there were large gains in the leisure and hospitality industry, with a 3,000-jobs increase over November 2011. Jobs in educational and health services industry have decreased in recent months, DWS said, but overall, there was an increase of 1,600 jobs from November 2011 to November 2012. Gains in other industries ranged from 100 to 700 jobs.
Big job losses were seen in the professional and business services industry, 3,900 jobs, and the information industry, 900 jobs over the year. Government employment registered a net loss of 4,800 jobs since last year, with job losses reported at the state and federal levels. State employment reported 4,300 fewer jobs than last year.
New Mexico's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.2 percent in November 2012, down from 6.3 percent in October and also down from 7.1 percent a year ago, DWS reported.
Jobs actually declined slightly from November 2011 to November 2012, by 4,800 jobs, or 0.6 percent, DWS reported.
More information about job and career opportunities is available at jobs.state.nm.us. Labor market information is available from DWS's Labor Analysis Statistics and Economic Research division at https://www.jobs.state.nm.us/analyzer/default.asp
