The metro Albuquerque industrial market reported more than 39 million square feet of total industrial space as of year-end 2017. The two largest categories of occupied space were warehouse/distribution (12.5 million square feet with 5.5 percent vacancy) and manufacturing (12.55 million square feet with 3.5 percent vacancy). The overall market vacancy rate at the end of 2017 was 5.7 percent for all industrial uses in buildings with more than 10,000 square feet. New Mexico added about 11,000 non-agricultural jobs from February 2017 through February 2018. The Albuquerque MSA added 5,800 jobs — a 1.5 percent increase — over this period, or more than half of the new jobs added in New Mexico. Albuquerque’s unemployment rate was 5 percent as of February, which is a notable improvement over the 6.2 percent unemployment rate in February 2017. During this period, the private service-providing industries grew by 3,100 jobs, or 1.2 percent, while the goods-producing industries (warehouse and manufacturing users) added 2,300 jobs, representing a gain of 6.2 percent. Albuquerque’s industrial market experienced positive net absorption of more than 261,000 square feet during the fourth quarter of 2017. This was the highest net absorption since the fourth quarter of 2015, and the second-highest …
