NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – On Friday, the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions released its Labor Market Review for February 2021. The report evaluates the state’s labor and employment trends.
The number of unemployed New Mexicans went down in February to 79,578. This is the lowest it’s been since the pandemic started. Unemployment was at its peak in July when the state hit 118,028 people. Pre-pandemic unemployment usually sat between 40,000 and 50,000.
When breaking things down by county, Luna County looked to be the hardest hit with 17.7% unemployment, followed by Lea county at 11.8%, and Taos County at 11.1%.
All counties except for Catron saw an over-the-year increase in unemployment. Catron County saw a decrease of 0.6%. Lea County saw the highest over-the-year increase with 7.4 percentage points.
Albuquerque had the lowest non-seasonal adjusted unemployment rate among New Mexico’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas at 7.7%. Both Las Cruces and Santa Fe had non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates of 7.9%.
Read the full report below:
