Businesses and local governments across New Mexico, including the City of Albuquerque, are still short on employees and looking for people to fill open positions as the state continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those that are short staffed are optimistic more people will seek employment now that extra unemployment benefits put in place in response to pandemic related government shutdowns have expired. The City of Albuquerque is one local government struggling to get people to fill the jobs they have available.
"We have 133 job postings right now," Anthony R. Romero, the Director of Albuquerque's Human Resources Department, told KOAT.
The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions estimated that roughly 55,000 residents of the state would be effected when the federal benefits program expired on Sept. 4, the station reported. Federal benefit programs that ended included the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), and the Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation (MEUC).
According to KOAT along with all the openings, the city is also offering sign-on and hiring bonuses between $500 and $1,500 depending on the type of job in an effort to entice more applicants while filling the vacant positions.