Finding a job after moving to a new city is always tough, especially if you're unfamiliar with the area. With no contacts, it can be difficult to know who's hiring and who's not. It gets even more difficult for skilled trades people like cable cutters and plumbing experts, since the jobs that tend to get the most advertising coverage are in the technology and retail sectors. So if you're a trades person moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico in need of a job, or simply a person interested in production, you'll find this page on Albuquerque's industry helpful.

The good news is that Albuquerque's economy is quite varied, which makes it somewhat resistant to recessions in any one industry and more likely to have a job available for you. Despite its seemingly barren desert location, Albuquerque is a major player in the agriculture industry, so if you're interested in rigging pipeline strainers for irrigation or working with livestock, you may be in luck. Fruit and produce are the primary products produced in this area.

Manufacturing is also a major component of the city's economy. There are more than 700 firms in Albuquerque that produce a product and a number of planned industrial parks that can be like one stop shopping for a factory experienced job seeker who knows how to work a pressure calibrator. Some of the things you might find yourself helping to construct if you choose to work in this sector are machine tools, trailers, fabricated steel building materials, fertilizer, paint, processed foods, furniture, electric signs, and jewelry.

For those designers of fin keels and lab technologists whose expertise is more toward the research and development side of industry, there is also a thriving high tech sector which has openings for people who can work outside of an office. Firms in the Rio Grande Research Corridor such as Sandia Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base need not only people to design the latest in advanced weaponry and scientific instruments, but also people like you who can make these designs into real equipment.

And finally we have commercial shipping. Albuquerque has been a major stop on trade routes since the first settlement of New Mexico. The only difference now is that products are transported in airliners, freight trains, industrial mixers, and eighteen-wheeled trucks rather than by mule. 146 million tons of cargo pass through Albuquerque International Airport yearly and there are 46 trucking companies and one freight rail line.