Given the fact we're in a recession, Santa Fe's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May was expected to be worse than it was last year — and it is.

Of Santa Fe's roughly 63,000-person work force, 5.6 percent are unemployed, according to a report from the Department of Workforce Solutions.

That's up from a revised April rate of 5 percent. A year ago, the unemployment rate was only 3.3 percent.

The rate of over-the-year job growth for Santa Fe was minus 2 percent, which represents a loss of 1,300 jobs

Federal and local government job gains from last May to this May came to 200 jobs. Employment at the state government level was unchanged.

Private sector industries added 400 jobs over the year. Half of those were added by educational and health services, the other half by leisure and hospitality.

"The Santa Fe job market has been weak for the last year and a half, so the recent data provided few surprises," the report said. "Job growth has alternated between positive and negative territory, staying close to the zero line. Some months have been better than others, but employment prospects in the local area have been fairly poor for a while."

The construction sector continued to lose jobs (700 since last May), a drop "that is consistent with the current poor fortunes of construction in most other parts of the state," the report said.

Retail, which is tied for third in the number of people any sector employs in Santa Fe (about 8,700), lost 300 jobs over the year. Only the information sector, which includes filmmaking, lost more jobs (400).

On the state level, the outlook is just as bleak, with the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May coming in at 6.5 percent, up from 5.8 percent in April and 4 percent a year ago.

Statewide, there was an over-the-year loss of 20,500 jobs.

"The last period of sustained job losses in the state occurred from October 1986 through February 1987," the Department of Workforce Solutions' report stated. "The state has not experienced the current level of sustained hardship since 1954, when jobs declined by 3.6 percent at the worst point."

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com">bobquick@sfnewmexican.com.