If you were just reading this article from the New Mexico Business Weekly, you might be feeling pretty good about New Mexico’s economy:
The quarterly state profile found that New Mexico’s job growth has remained steady — between 1 and 2 percent since midyear 2002 unlike the rest of the country — which has been slow to come out of recession. FDIC officials attribute this to the state’s stable federal employment base.
However, taken in context of the performance of the rest of our neighbors in the West, and it is not quite as pretty of a picture. Throw in these facts about the greater number of unemployed over last year, and it is downright unsettling. With this level of underperformance on stated goals, you have to wonder why Governor Richardson and Mayor Chavez aren’t sitting behind their desk instead of touring Europe. You do remember what happened with the last European company that was wooed to New Mexico.