{"id":600515,"date":"2018-07-05T11:49:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T17:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=600515"},"modified":"2018-07-06T09:06:28","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T15:06:28","slug":"new-mexico-in-the-rear-view-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/new-mexico-in-the-rear-view-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico in the rear-view mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_600527\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-600527\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/01-Jesse-Wood-at-track-771x572.jpg\" alt=\"Jesse Wood\" width=\"771\" height=\"572\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/01-Jesse-Wood-at-track-771x572.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/01-Jesse-Wood-at-track-336x249.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/01-Jesse-Wood-at-track-768x570.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/01-Jesse-Wood-at-track-1170x868.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/01-Jesse-Wood-at-track.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy of Jesse Wood<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmington native and filmmaker Jesse Wood on a photo shoot at a racetrack, where his specialty is capturing high-speed cars. Wood left New Mexico after college.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Leaving New Mexico wasn\u2019t a maybe &#8212; it was a have-to &#8212; for Jesse Wood, a Farmington kid who graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2014. Like thousands of other grads, he was smart, talented and committed to his career path.<\/p>\n<p>It led him straight out of the state.<\/p>\n<p>By his junior year in UNM\u2019s film and digital media department, he was making <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CvEapl64A7U&amp;ab_channel=DonutMedia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eye-popping videos<\/a> about his passion in life: cars. By senior year, he was traveling the country making Hollywood-quality promo videos on the Formula Drift circuit, capturing gonzo drivers and fast cars skidding sideways.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/searchlightnm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Searchlight New Mexico\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0year-long journalistic investigation into child well-being in New Mexico. Read the series, Raising New Mexico,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/series\/raising-new-mexico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>He kept his eye out for the right job in New Mexico, but there wasn\u2019t one. \u201cI freelanced for a while,\u201d Wood, now 26, says by phone from Ventura, north of Los Angeles. \u201cBut the film world was in L.A., and so were the automotive companies. L.A. was the epicenter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, the epicenter became home. He landed a dream job as creative director at Los Angeles-based Donut Media, creator of comedy-injected digital content for car lovers, including a new video daily. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCL6JmiMXKoXS6bpP1D3bk8g?&amp;ab_channel=DonutMedia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube channel<\/a> has nearly a million subscribers.<\/p>\n<h3>Heading for the hills<\/h3>\n<p>Between 2011 and 2016, in the years leading up to Wood\u2019s departure, an unprecedented exodus of New Mexicans left the Land of Enchantment in search of new jobs and homes. Economists estimate that 42,000 more people exited the state than entered it.<\/p>\n<p>The majority were college-educated, including 17,000 people with a bachelor\u2019s degree. It was an alarming brain-drain, and one of the highest rates of \u201cout-migration\u201d anywhere in the country, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/bber.unm.edu\/media\/presentations\/NewMexicosEconomyCurrentSituationAndOutlook.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">labor and census statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe data clearly indicate that out-migration is occurring at a disproportionate rate in better-educated younger adults and people with bachelor\u2019s degrees,\u201d says Jeff Mitchell, director of UNM\u2019s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-600528\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/brainDrain.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"697\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/brainDrain.png 660w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/brainDrain-336x355.png 336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>No state can afford to lose high-quality, educated workers, the key ingredient for a thriving economy. Impoverished New Mexico can afford to lose them least of all. But state officials say there is no telling when the out-flow will end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve already seen five or six years of this story,\u201d says Mitchell, who identifies it as one of the clearest signs that New Mexico has entered perilous and uncharted territory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe single biggest problem is that people think they\u2019re going to find a quick solution,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut successes won\u2019t play out in the two to four years of an election cycle. In fact, the economy might get worse before it gets better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo take action anyway? That\u2019s leadership. But who is the politician who says, \u2018I\u2019m going to take a stand and do what\u2019s necessary even if it doesn\u2019t benefit me politically?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new post-recession world demands a STEM-skilled workforce for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. At minimum, workers need one or two years of education after high school, preferably from a technical or trade school that teaches mechanical, electrical or computer engineering skills (in high demand today). Other jobs require an associate\u2019s, bachelor\u2019s or advanced degree.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t be successful without a high-quality workforce &#8212; you just can\u2019t,\u201d says Scott Barnette, senior manager of development and operations at Continental Tire, who scours the globe to choose the right site for the company\u2019s new projects. He recently chose Clinton, Mississippi, for a $1.4 billion tire plant slated to create 2,500 jobs.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In New Mexico, meanwhile, the dial is moving backward. For the first time in state history, the older generation is better educated than the younger generation, the New Mexico Higher Education Department <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hed.state.nm.us\/uploads\/files\/Data%20Research\/Data%20Reports\/Annual%20Report%202013%20Final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When a state starts losing its qualified workforce, economies contract, unemployment rises and more people join the out-migration. It is a vicious circle.<\/p>\n<p>Wood recalls getting a sense of the downward spiral when he was a teenager in Farmington. He and his classmates at Piedra Vista High School were well aware of New Mexico\u2019s low ranking for child well-being: For decades, New Mexico has had one of the nation\u2019s highest rates of childhood poverty, high school dropouts, substance abuse and teen suicide.<\/p>\n<p>On June 27, the state dropped to 50th &#8212; dead last &#8212; in the Annie E. Casey Foundation child well-being rankings, where it had clutched a 49th-place rung since 2014. \u201cYounger people feel that futility,\u201d Wood offers as a reason that people leave.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell offers another. \u201cIn prior years, there was more of a sense that you could stay here and make something of yourself.\u201d Today more than ever, New Mexico needs to nurture home-grown entrepreneurs, he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have a sense of the place,\u201d says Mitchell. \u201cLet them be a big fish in a small pond.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Where the jobs are &#8212; and aren\u2019t<\/h3>\n<p>Doug Rasmussen, a site selection specialist at the St. Louis office of international corporate advising firm Duff &amp; Phelps, has seen a lot of economic boom and bust during his 17-year career.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s seen jobs vanish and return. He\u2019s directed clients in moves all around America. He\u2019s also an optimist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo place is blue skies and roses always blooming. And no place is all negative,\u201d Rasmussen says.<\/p>\n<p>Site selection is a no-stone-unturned process that begins with a demographic study and expands to modeling, analytics and examining hundreds of data points.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst you have to see if things are trending in a positive or negative direction,\u201d he explains. \u201cHow young is the metro area and the state?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rasmussen travels to cities, looks at schools, and examines local and state government. He analyzes taxes, legal codes, environment regulations, utility costs, bond ratings, infrastructure, mass transit, airport schedules, real estate and labor costs, cell towers and broadband, building sites and economic incentives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChild well-being is a major issue, of course,\u201d he says. But communities can still be good candidates if they\u2019re aggressively tackling the problem, he adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the end, the executives are going to be living in these places,\u201d Rasmussen says. \u201c\u2018Can I see myself living here? My employees living here? Can I see my kids going to these schools?\u2019 That\u2019s what they\u2019ll be asking themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico\u2019s education system might well prompt them to answer \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Only 71 percent of high school students graduated on time, the nation\u2019s second worst rate. The rate of bachelor\u2019s degrees for 25- to 34-year-olds &#8212; 22 percent &#8212; is also the second-lowest, according to the U.S. Census. In No. 1 Massachusetts, the rate is 51 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Youth unemployment is another serious problem. As of April, more than 20 percent of teens age 16 to 19 were jobless, labor statistics show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery year we watch the young talent pack up and move away to places with jobs and better-paying jobs,\u201d says Katherine\u00a0Freeman, president and CEO of United Way of Santa Fe County.<\/p>\n<p>She routinely observes professionals hesitate before moving here. \u201cThey look long and hard at education and state policies,\u201d she says. They see troubled middle schools and high schools, but can\u2019t afford private school tuition. \u201cComing here is a sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At a certain tipping point, \u201cpeople vote with their feet,\u201d as the U.S. Department of Agriculture puts it. The agency in 2010 took an exhaustive look at why Americans move out of the \u201csmall ponds\u201d of rural areas to find the big ponds in healthy economies. A major reason was poor-quality schools, the agency found.<\/p>\n<p>Today, according to the BBER, job-hunters increasingly opt for states like Texas, with the fastest population growth in the Southwest, or Nevada, home of the newly opened Tesla battery Gigafactory in Sparks, a project for which New Mexico was in the running but lost in 2014. The Gigafactory is expected to create 6,500 jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past seven years, population rates in Colorado, Texas and Utah grew anywhere from 9 to 11 percent; in New Mexico, they grew 1 percent.<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the country, while its neighbors and the rest of the nation are in a boom. In May, the state had 5.1 percent unemployment, a large improvement over the 6.5 percent unemployment it\u2019s struggled with since 2014.<\/p>\n<p>But it was no match for the 3 percent unemployment in Utah or the 4 percent in Texas, where the business climate is so alluring that two cities &#8212; Dallas and Austin &#8212; are in the running to become Amazon\u2019s second headquarters. Amazon HQ2, considered one of the most extraordinary developments in the world, is expected to create 50,000 high-paying jobs and $5 billion in capital investment; the average annual salary will be $100,000, the company says.<\/p>\n<p>How did Amazon narrow down its list of 238 applicant cities to a final 20? \u201cEducational attainment\u201d was a key driver.<\/p>\n<p>The company said in its <a href=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/G\/01\/Anything\/test\/images\/usa\/RFP_3._V516043504_.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">request for proposals<\/a> that it \u201cpreferred\u201d a location with a highly educated labor pool and enough people with STEM training to fill the thousands of jobs. Other requirements included top-tier universities and community colleges; high enrollment, grades and retention rates in higher education; top-quality K-12 schools; and plentiful K-12 STEM programs, the RFP says.<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico was involved in two bids. The Mesilla Valley Economic Alliance in Las Cruces and the Border Industrial Association in Santa Teresa joined to propose a regional site that would have spanned Santa Teresa and San Jeronimo, Mexico. The Borderplex Alliance in El Paso proposed sites in El Paso, Las Cruces and Ju\u00e1rez. Neither proposal made the final cut.<\/p>\n<h3>Supporting our people<\/h3>\n<p>Amazon\u2019s HQ2 is such a fantastical project that only the rarest of regions could hope to win it. But New Mexico can be a hard sell for more modest projects, as well.<\/p>\n<p>Among the red flags: the state\u2019s population growth from 2010 to 2016 was the weakest in the Southwest, according to government data.<\/p>\n<p>And site-selection consultants worldwide scour every metric about education, from early childhood programs to the availability of adult education. States that support adult-ed are likely to have more available workers and healthier families, research shows.<\/p>\n<p>A quick Google search will show consultants that the New Mexico Adult Education Division served 12,755 students in 2017, the lowest number in decades. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish served more people than that &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wildlife.state.nm.us\/download\/department\/annual-report\/Annual-Report-Fiscal-Year-2017-New-Mexico-Game-Fish.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">12,780<\/a> &#8212; in its fishing skills classes around the state.<\/p>\n<p>Consultants can quickly download a 2016 economic report for the state legislature entitled, pointedly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/Publications\/economic_summary\/2016\/new%20mexico%20job%20horizon%20-%20no%20country%20for%20young%20men%20(or%20women)%20(apr).pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cNew Mexico Job Horizon: No Country for Young Men (or Women).\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Waiting for jobs that do not yet exist may have a poetic ring to it, but Jesse Wood has plans for his life. He spends his days shooting viral videos like <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/LOhu1AmuOGo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cTwo Grannies, One Lamborghini\u201d<\/a> (6.6 million views and counting).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love it here,\u201d Wood says, adding, \u201cI love New Mexico, too. But for the better or the worse, the big pond is L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Educated workers are leaving the state in search of a brighter future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[234,118],"class_list":["post-600515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-children","tag-economy","series-raising-new-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}