Whatever one thinks about Barack Obama, unemployment has fallen during his administration. It peaked at 10.0 percent in October 2009, nine months after the 44th president was inaugurated. Since then, it’s declined slowly but steadily, to 5.1 percent.
For a time, it appeared that New Mexico was following suit. Unemployment in the Land of Enchantment peaked at 8.3 percent in July 2010, then tumbled to 5.9 percent in the first month of this year.
That’s when the progress stopped.
By August, New Mexico’s unemployment rate climbed back to 6.7 percent. In Albuquerque, the rate bottomed out at 5.4 percent in the final month of 2014, then increased to 6.6 percent in August. (If joblessness is rising during a national recovery, what’s going to happen to New Mexico when the next recession hits?)
Fewer employment opportunities help explain the state’s dismal employment-to-population ratio for 25-to-54-year-olds.
Errors of Enchantment has written it before, and we’ll write it again: New Mexico needs an effective and aggressive economic-development strategy, implemented yesterday.
With the lowest workforce participation rate in almost 40 years, and over 94 million people not working, I simply cannot understand how anyone would believe we have an unemployment rate of only 5.1%!! These figures are much like Stalin’s crop reports!
And the highest percentage of underemployed/workforce dropouts/part-timers under 40 hours, yada yada in almost forever nationally
A high percent “employed” of absolutely dismal workforce participation certainly is nothing to crow about
These knuckleheads consider 30-hour workers however employed to be FTEs; this is unconscionable
Last I read is the national manufacturing output has continually decreased and the service industry looks to be the next coming casualty. Yep, Obama’s recovery is in full force. And Bernie plays his socialist piped pipe leading the kiddies to never utopian land.