Job Growth: That Unemployment Rate

Yesterday I happened to visit with one of the state's senior economic development officials. During the chat, the official expressed comfort in New Mexico's unemployment rate remaining low. I offered the notion that like the emperor in the parade, the rate wears no clothes. Prudence, however, suggested checking with a real wizard, so I did. Tucker Hart Adams is the economic knowledge guru of Colorado. She said, the unemployment whether in Colorado or New Mexico "is a worthless statistic. You are only unemployed if you've looked for a job in the past four weeks and I am convinced that fewer people fall into that category. I think all of the people who found jobs for the first time during the boom of the 1990s and were the first to lose their jobs in the 2000s quickly said, 'I knew it was too good to be true' and didn't look for very long."