◆ Unemployment claims remain steady in New Mexico.

NMSU economist says state is over worst period

Jobless claims continue to level off in New Mexico, with initial regular unemployment claims for the week ending May 23 remaining virtually unchanged.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 7,347 claims were filed in that weekly reporting period — down less than a dozen from the 7,356 filed the previous week.

Claims from the self-employed, contractors and gig workers through the separate, federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program also were fairly flat at 3,132 for the week ending May 23, similar to the 3,253 the prior week.

The first week of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applications starting April 26 had 17,850 self-employed seeking benefits.

New Mexico has seen 153,242 people file for regular unemployment benefits since March 13 and 29,022 apply for the small-business benefits since April 26.

“It’s clear we are over the worst,” said Chris Erickson, head of the economics department at New Mexico State University. “We are coming out the other end.”

But weekly filings still remain 10 times higher than normal.

“What is still likely to happen is businesses never coming back,” Erickson said.

Unemployment could ease more as nonessential retail — basically small business — and other offices in New Mexico reopened May 16 with maximum 25 percent occupancy. Restaurants were allowed to reopen Wednesday for dine-in outdoor service only and potentially could reopen June 1 for indoor service at reduced capacity.

“The problem is, are employees going to go back to work

and are customers going to start spending?” Erickson said.

Diane Chavez this week returned to a part-time job she had at the Gertrude Zachary jewelry store in Albuquerque after getting furloughed in midMarch but has not gotten her full-time job back at Automotive Test Solutions.

“They were not bad at all,” Chavez said about being unemployed for two months. “I financially prepared myself for it. I paid off my debt [before the novel coronavirus struck].”

Chavez said her experience with the heavily criticized state

Department of Workforce Solutions was fairly smooth.

“Actually, it wasn’t too bad,” she said, adding she did have to change her Workforce Solutions password to file a claim.

The New Mexico unemployment rate was 12.95 percent for the week ending May 16, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, similar to the prior week and substantially lower than the states with the highest unemployment rates — Washington at 31.2 percent, Nevada (26.7 percent), Florida (25 percent), Hawaii (23.4 percent) and Michigan (23.1 percent).