A new information source, the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) program for New Mexico, shows:

• The workforce is aging. From 1996 through 2002, an increasing percentage of the workforce was 45 years and older. The proportion of people 65 years and older who continue working has also increased, but only slightly.
• Industries in which more than 1-in-5 workers were 55 years and older in 2002 include: local/suburban transit, educational services, membership organizations, and real estate. Of these, the educational services and real estate industries employed more than 1,000 older workers.
• An example of an industry with a high turnover rate for workers 55 years and over is business services.
• An example of an industry with a low turnover rate for older workers is the printing and publishing industry.
• Industries where workers 65 years and over are most likely to be employed include health services, business services, and eating and drinking places.
• On average, in 2002, for workers 65 years and over, 1,783 jobs were created and 2,072 were lost.
• The industry with the highest average monthly earnings in 2002 for workers 65 years and older was engineering, accounting and research ($4,157), and the number of such workers was 889. This was the only high paying industry that employed more than 500 workers 65 years and older.