Report: New Mexico needs 40,000 workers to reach national average workforce participation
SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – A new report to New Mexico’s lawmakers says the state needs approximately 40,000 workers between the ages of 20 and 54 in order to bring the state up to the national average workforce participation rate.
The report comes from the Legislative Finance Committee. The group makes recommendations to lawmakers and has been tracking the state’s labor industry for years. The data shows labor participation (the number of those who could work and are working) has increased over the last few years, but it still lags behind the national average.
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New Mexico has a “relatively low” unemployment rate, the report notes. That is good news “but does not capture the full picture—one where many New Mexicans are persistently disengaged
from the labor force and face significant, systemic barriers to reentry,” the report notes.
Allegra Hernandez, one of the researchers who worked on the report, told lawmakers on Wednesday that New Mexico’s Workforce Solutions Department is struggling to boost participation in the labor force, in part because it is relying on outdated outreach centers.
“The department continues to rely on an outdated model for connecting employers and job seekers. At the heart of this system is the brick-and-mortar workforce connection center, a vestige of the Great Depression when a vast number of unemployed Americans sought jobs,” Hernandez said. “Usage of connection centers is down, and accessing [the] basic career services that they provide does not increase likelihood of finding employment.”
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Workforce Solutions Secretary Sarita Nair responded by disagreeing that the connections centers are not working. “We consider these to be a vital resource, especially given the rural nature of our state,” Nair told lawmakers. She also says the report failed to look at business services provided at workforce connection centers.
Nair also noted that there are around 156,500 working-age people in New Mexico who simply say they don’t want a job. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing. They could be a primary caregiver. They could be retired. They could be disabled. They could be independently wealthy,” Nair said.
And around 7,200 people (at the end of 2023) do want a job, Nair says, but they haven’t looked for one. “This is the population that’s really the focus for us,” she added.
