Where are Cibola’s workers?
CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. – As the United States emerges from the COVID-19 lockdown, refilling the lost jobs of pre-pandemic life is proving to be a challenge. Across Cibola County “Help wanted” and “Urgently hiring” signs are hard to miss as the county grapples with a 10.4 percent unemployment rate. With jobs being available, the Cibola Citizen explored the reasons behind the county’s fluctuating unemployment.
COVID-19 caused a year of the unprecedented; with an unprecedented transition from on-site to online working and learning, due to unprecedented nationwide public health lockdowns of various degree, employees were furloughed or fired. Now, as the nation struggles to get the economy moving again, Cibola County finds itself with growing unemployment despite the progress made against the virus – thanks in part to vaccines and masks.
Cibola County has a population of 26,675 people, according to the United States Census Bureau information from 2019. Cibola has a civilian labor force of 9,948, that being the number of people who are eligible to be employed – roughly one third of the county’s population, according to New Mexico Workforce Connection.
Of the 9,948 eligible workers, 8,917 are currently employed, 1,031 people as of August 9 were unemployed across Cibola County. That sits Cibola County at 10.4 percent unemployment.
Across the county there were, as of Aug. 9, 430 job openings. This means there are 7.26 candidates per job opening.
Where are the employees?
There are 420 job openings across Cibola, and an unemployed labor force of 1,031 people. Even if every job opening were filled, there would still be severe unemployment in the county.
Eileen Chavez Yarborough, Executive Director of Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation, “It’s a challenge for the city, county, and village to generate [Gross Receipts Tax] and make it easier for the people who are working to spend their payroll here in town and grow the economic tax base when you only have 10 to 12,000 people working.”
CCEDF exists to diversify and grow the economic tax base of Cibola County by attracting economic based businesses, this work results in new jobs for the Village of Milan, City of Grants, and the wider Cibola County. CCEDF’s goal is to bring new money into Cibola County, they focus their service and attention on economic based business, that being businesses that make 51 percent or more of their money from out of state sales, according to Chavez Yarborough.
During the course of the pandemic, there were “many new” inquiries from businesses looking at Cibola as a place to relocate, “I attribute that to, mainly, economics: one; but two: people want to move away from populated areas to more rural areas, there are several reasons why, but obviously the main one is COVID, so all of those things have actually been good for recruitment,” Chavez Yarborough said.
Since the pandemic began, CCEDF has issued an influx of new PROs, potential recruitment opportunities, and are looking for businesses to commit fully to Cibola. Currently, there are three projects that CCEDF is working with to come to Cibola.
CCEDF does not help with directly hiring new employees to businesses, but it can help direct business owners in the right direction to find new employees. CCEDF teams up regularly with the Grants/Cibola Chamber of Commerce, Grants MainStreet Project Inc. and New Mexico Workforce Connection, New Mexico Workforce Solution, and Homestake Mining Company to hold job fairs.
CCEDF also identifies training opportunities for job seekers, and encourages postsecondary education and new trade opportunities, “We get them in touch with a workforce program… and we find what best fits them, and then they get money to go to school and train in that new occupation,” Chavez Yarborough said.
CCEDF does offer internship opportunities, businesses can reach out to CCEDF, and the foundation will match them up with an internship seeker. This provides businesses with the ability to try out a new employee without having to commit but can choose to hire them fully at the end of the internship. Job seekers can drop off their resumes with CCEDF at their office located on 210 E. Santa Fe Avenue in Grants, NM.
CCEDF is not the only assistance available to local businesses, the Small Business Development Center in Grants, New Mexico, helps to develop businesses across Cibola. SBDC is an extension of New Mexico State University and helps potential business owners establish their paperwork, set up their business plan, and work their way through technical issues new business owners come across. The SBDC does not offer services that help employers find employees and cannot help marijuana-based business startups because the drug is still illegal federally and the university receives federal funding.
The collective agreement between the sources the Cibola Citizen spoke with agree, there are several primary factors leading to a lack of jobs.
1. The COVID-19 scare, some people who left the workforce are not returning.
2. It is the end of the fiscal year for several businesses, the decline in the global supply chain hurt business’ ability to bring employees back quickly.
3. Additional benefits to rental assistance and unemployment are creating an atmosphere where employees do not want to return to work.
“Its not that we don’t have the jobs available, its that we don’t have the workforce available to fill those jobs,” Chavez Yarborough said.
New Mexico just ended a campaign to bring people back to work. Between July 4 and July 31, people who obtained a job and maintain employment through August 28 will receive a check. The check amounts will be between $1,000 for people that signed up right away, and $400 for people who signed up at the end of July. This benefit was only for people on unemployment in New Mexico.
Workforce connection reported that it is still too early to gauge the impact of these payments on the job market.
Pandemic-era federal unemployment benefits will end on September 6. The federal eviction moratorium has been extended, but the statewide moratorium on evictions remains in place, meaning that renters cannot be evicted from their house for lack of payment.
Despite the nationwide unemployment crisis which is affecting Cibola, there is excitement brewing at CCEDF for new projects coming to the Cibola community. The Cibola Citizen will continue to monitor the progress of and report on new economic development coming to Cibola County.
How unemployment has changed
Before the pandemic began, Cibola County was resting in the six percent range for unemployment, from October through December of 2019 the unemployment rate never rose above 6.3 or dropped below 6.1 percent.
January and February of 2020 saw slight gains in unemployment, going from a 6.1 percent unemployment in Dec. of 2019 to 6.7 percent in January, dropping to 6.5 percent in February.
March 15 was the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns that forced small businesses across the state and country to shut their doors. Unemployment for the month of March 2020 did not spike, closing the month at 6.9 percent.
Every month to follow would see a steady incline to the unemployment figures, capping off at 14 percent unemployment in July 2020. COVID-19 cases saw a massive spike during the month of July, following the spike in cases came the increase of unemployment. As August saw a recovery from the COVID-fueled July, unemployment numbers dropped until November, when numbers increased to 9.4 percent. In December numbers rose again to 10.9 percent, jumping to 12.1 percent in January of 2021. Unemployment dropped to 10.9 percent in February.
One year later, in March of 2021, Unemployment saw a slight drop off, going to 10.4 percent. Through 2021, in part due to a vigorous vaccination effort by the state, Cibola’s numbers continued to drop, in May unemployment sat at 9.2 percent.
In June unemployment rose to 10.4 percent, seeing a 1.2 percent increase from the previous month. The month of June did not see any massive increases in COVID-19 cases or deaths. As of press time, unemployment numbers for July had not been released.
Across Cibola County, the average weekly wage is $843.
New Mexico’s unemployment as a whole is 8.4 percent as of August 9.
Assistance for businesses
Businesses that need help with expansion or have other questions can find opportunities available, CCEDF will help direct business owners and managers in the right direction to figure out how to best help the individual businesses. The SBDC and NMWC can also help business owners with issues they have.
The SBDC does not offer assistance in finding employees, but CCEDF teams up often with the Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce, Grants MainStreet Project Inc., and New Mexico Workforce Connection to put on job fairs.
SBDC does offer assistance with Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness, the PPP grant was established to help employers keep their employs working during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Much of the time, according to Chavez Yarborough, the assistance businesses need is someone to throw ideas around with. “We can’t always help them, but we can focus in on what their specific needs are and get them in the right direction,” Chavez Yarborough said.
New Mexico Workforce Connections was once part of the Department of Labor, an office dissolved. They offer a plethora of resources and assistance to local businesses. Workforce Connections has a mobile office that allows for on the spot applications at job fairs, Stacey Johnson, media contact with NMWC, said.
NMWC does offer some assistance with finding employees, allowing business owners to visit https://www.jobs.state.nm.us/vosnet/Default.aspx for tools and opportunities at recruiting new employees. NMWC does not have an office in Cibola County.
Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation can be reached at http://www.cibolaedc.com/ or 505-287-6685.
Small Business Development Center in Grants can be reached 287-6688.
The Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce can be reached at 505-287-4802.