UNM Constructing a Stronger Regional Economic Development Strategy

UNM Pres­i­dent Robert Frank has received his final report from the UNM Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Sum­mit and is begin­ning to con­sider ways in which the uni­ver­sity can most effec­tively par­tic­i­pate in devel­op­ing the regional and state economy.

The UNM Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Sum­mit report makes a num­ber of recommendations.

One of the most star­tling find­ings is the assess­ment of the num­ber of new jobs that must be cre­ated in the next few years to min­i­mize the effect of los­ing jobs in the gov­ern­ment and pri­vate sec­tors that began with the 2007 recession. Mark Laut­man, of Laut­man Eco­nomic Archi­tec­ture which put together the report, says “This effort by UNM is espe­cially timely because the econ­omy of New Mex­ico is headed toward a fis­cal cliff.” 

This report squarely faces the eco­nomic sce­nario if the cur­rent con­gres­sional seques­tra­tion is allowed to take effect.

“As we mark the Cen­ten­nial, New Mex­ico finds itself in the midst of the great­est eco­nomic cri­sis since state­hood,” said Laut­man. “After los­ing between 40,000 and 50,000 jobs, in the worst reces­sion in his­tory, the state is on the brink of a suf­fer­ing a sec­ond, even more dev­as­tat­ing cycle of job losses from the down­siz­ing of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions in New Mex­ico. The ABQ Metro area is in its 40th con­sec­u­tive month of job con­trac­tion. Com­mu­ni­ties with UNM sites (Taos, Los Alamos, Rio North, Gallup, and Valen­cia) are each fac­ing sim­i­lar eco­nomic and demo­graphic crises of their own.”

After fac­tor­ing in nat­ural pop­u­la­tion growth, the New Mex­ico econ­omy will need to cre­ate more than 100,000 net new jobs to recover to pre-recession employ­ment lev­els by 2022. This would require 40,000 jobs to replace those lost since the reces­sion, and the addi­tional 50,000 jobs tore­place those lost from seques­tra­tion and the tak­ing of New Mexico’s fed­eral jobs. If another 10,000 addi­tional new jobs are needed to sup­port new pop­u­la­tion growth in the decade ahead, the state would have to cre­ate a total of 100,000 new jobs to return to 2007 employ­ment lev­els. To achieve this, the state will have to cre­ate 40,000 net new eco­nomic base jobs to trig­ger the 60,000 jobs expected to be added in the ser­vice sector.

Replace Cur­rent Jobs Lost
17,000 Eco­nomic Base + 23,000 Ser­vice Sec­tor jobs = 40,000

To Replace Future Job Loss
20,000 Eco­nomic Base + 30,000 Ser­vice Sec­tor jobs = 50,000

To Sup­port Pop­u­la­tion Growth
3,000 Eco­nomic Base + 7,000 Ser­vice Sec­tor jobs = 10,000

Total Jobs Needed by 2022
40,000 Eco­nomic + 60,000 Ser­vice Sec­tor jobs = 100,000 total jobs

This is a worst case scenario. If the con­gres­sional seques­tra­tion is nav­i­gated suc­cess­fully, the New Mex­ico econ­omy may not con­tinue to con­tract so swiftly, but the report points out that the best way to mit­i­gate the slide is to take pos­i­tive action now.

The report con­tains spe­cific sug­ges­tions in three main areas.  One is the rain­for­est approach in which the uni­ver­sity sup­ports stu­dents and fac­ulty as they cre­ate intel­lec­tual prop­erty and start com­pa­nies based on their research.

The sec­ond is the employer sec­tor approach in which UNM works directly with com­pa­nies and indi­vid­u­als in cre­at­ing and fill­ing jobs that align with spe­cific indus­try sec­tors the state is seek­ing to build.

The third approach is capac­ity build­ing and would involve using UNM assets such as the Bureau of Busi­ness and Eco­nomic Research (BBER) to do mar­ket research, eco­nomic and demo­graphic analy­sis and strate­gic plan­ning for state and local job creation. It would also involve UNM per­son­nel work­ing to con­vert the aca­d­e­mic, busi­ness and gov­ern­ment com­mu­ni­ties to more aggres­sively pre­pare for an entre­pre­neur­ial economy.

An Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Advi­sory Group (EDAG), appointed by Pres­i­dent Frank and chaired by Doug Brown, dean of the Ander­son School of Man­age­ment, has already begun to develop a map for future action by the university. 

Mem­bers of the group include:

San­dra Begay-Campbell – STC.UNM Board chair and SNL Tribal Energy Pro­gram
Bar­bara Brazil – deputy cab­i­net sec­re­tary, NM Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Depart­ment
John Chavez – pres­i­dent, New Mex­ico Angels (Ven­ture Cap­i­tal Investors)
Terri Cole – STC.UNM Board mem­ber and pres­i­dent, Greater Albu­querque Cham­ber of Com­merce
Robert (Bob) Cur­tis – CEO, Res­pira Ther­a­peu­tics
Dale Dekker – prin­ci­pal, Dekker/Perich/Sabatini
Robert Fisher – founder, Fisher Lead­er­ship Strat­egy Exe­cu­tion
Richard Gill – CEO TruTouch, mem­ber of Launch­Pad investors
Lisa Kuut­tila – CEO & pres­i­dent, STC.UNM
Mark Laut­man – founder, Com­mu­nity Eco­nom­ics Lab
John T. McGraw – UNM pro­fes­sor and vice pres­i­dent, Research & Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment
Eric Pross­nitz – UNM pro­fes­sor of Cell Biol­ogy, chair of the UNM Health Sci­ences Cen­ter COI Com­mit­tee
Catilin Roman – dean, UNM School of Engi­neer­ing
Mathis Shin­nick – prin­ci­pal, Hanserd Hold­ings Ltd.
Gary Ton­jes – STC.UNM Board mem­ber and pres­i­dent, Albu­querque Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment
Chuck Well­born – for­mer pres­i­dent, STC.UNM

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu