labor shortage

New Mexico is facing a health care worker shortage. This year, legislators had the opportunity to pass bills making it easier to recruit and retain these professionals, but most legislation failed.

Residents at the University of New Mexico Hospital ratified a new contract last week, winning a 5% raise after months of negotiations.

While New Mexico state government continues to struggle to fill open positions, departments are asking lawmakers to fund new ones. Legislators on the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday spitballed potential solutions to the issue.

After some lawmakers took issue with proposed raises for State Police officers meant to help with recruitment, the Department of Public Safety is asking the Legislature to consider instead funding bonuses for senior officers to help stem retirements.

While New Mexico’s public sector as a whole has continued to struggle with high vacancy rates since the pandemic, local governments are in worse shape than the state. KUNM’s Nash Jones hosted a roundtable NM PBS’ New Mexico in Focus on Oct. 6 to learn more about the scope of the issue and what’s driving it. Below is an excerpt from that discussion.

While the national nursing shortage may be easing, vacancies still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic numbers, according to a study from Nursing Solutions Inc. In New Mexico, the most recent data showed 9,000 RN job postings in the state as of last summer. The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center has announced it’s set to receive millions in federal funds to address the gap, particularly in rural areas.

While the private sector has bounced back from pandemic job losses, public sector jobs still haven’t recovered, according to federal statistics. At an AFSCME hiring event for public service jobs in New Mexico Monday, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said the city is in desperate need of help.

The nation's largest public service employees union is rolling through Albuquerque as part of its national Staff the Front Lines bus tour. The AFSCME recruitment campaign is being held in over 20 cities this summer in response to what the union says is “chronic understaffing” in essential government positions nationwide. A local hiring event on Monday is part of the effort.

Recently the Legislative Finance Committee met to review the progress of spending New Mexico’s share of federal pandemic aid. There are a lot of projects either on-going or in the planning stages and lawmakers want to make sure those projects get funded before access to those federal dollars expires.

Let’s Talk New Mexico 12/9 8am: New Mexico relies heavily on government for employment, but like other sectors the state and cities are having trouble with staffing. We’ll ask state and local policy makers and researchers what we can do to compete while other Southwestern cities and states seem to be doing better. Is government work on your radar or have you run into difficulties because you couldn't get the help you needed because of an understaffed government?