New Mexico “improves” to 50th on construction index

The Associated Builders and Contractors‘ new “Merit Shop Scorecard” just came out and the news is not particularly good for New Mexico. The 2015 placed us dead last (51 out of 51, behind the District of Columbia). We’ve moved up this year, but only to 50th (we beat out Illinois).

See a map illustrating the results below:

Among the ways New Mexico laws fall short are lack of “right to work” and having a “prevailing wage” mandate. Unfortunately, recent changes to New Mexico’s Legislature make it unlikely that anything will be done to address those two issues.

Not surprisingly, New Mexico’s construction industry suffers from the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. The “good” news is that nearby Colorado has the lowest construction unemployment rate in the nation.