FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2, 2021
Contact: Joaquin Romero
joaquin.romero@nmlegis.gov
(505) 506-5798
Senator Craig Brandt Responds to Bleak Employment Report from Governor’s Office
Forecast: New Mexico may not recover to pre-pandemic employment levels until late-2026
SANTA FE – Today, the Cabinet Secretaries of the Department of Finance and Administration and the Taxation and Revenue Department presented the Governor’s Consensus General Fund Revenue Outlook to the Legislative Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee. Despite the recent focus on additional revenue for the upcoming budget year, the report highlighted an increasingly bleak employment outlook as the state struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdowns by the Governor.
Senator Craig Brandt (District 40-Sandoval), a member of the committee, issued the following statement in response to the report:
“The report from the Governor’s Office highlights the fact that we will likely be dealing with the economic side-effects of our response to COVID-19 long after the pandemic has passed. Sadly, while our neighboring states are recovering steadily, forecasts indicate that New Mexico may not recover to pre-pandemic employment levels until the end of 2026. We now have the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation and we have lost around 40 percent of our small businesses. Whether you believe the Governor has handled the pandemic response well or not, these bleak figures certainly call into question her handling of the recovery.”
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