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Las Cruces is rated as the sixth best city in America for unemployment recovery since the onset of COVID-19.
According to a report released Wednesday, July 1, Las Cruces has the second-best recovery among all states in its unemployment rate since the onset of COVID-19.
The report by the personal-finance website WalletHub says Las Cruces had the third-best recovery among 180 cities in the U.S. when May 2020 unemployment (4,025) is compared to January 2020 (2,478). That’s a change of 62.4 percent. Las Cruces is ranked second.
Las Cruces’ official unemployment rate for May 2020 is listed as 9 percent, the 20th lowest in the U.S. But WalletHub said the adjusted rate is 11.1 percent when workers on temporary layoffs are counted.
The latest jobs report shows the national unemployment rate at 13.3 percent, 10 percent below the peak of 14.7 percent during the COVID-19 peak, WalletHub said. When adjusted for temporary layoffs, that figure could be 23 percent higher, the website said.
By way of comparison, New York City, which had, at one time, experienced the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., showed a 365 percent increase in unemployment from January-May 2020, WalletHub said. The national average increase was 260 percent. New York City’s overall unemployment rate is 18.2 percent.
Ahead of Las Cruces in the overall national rankings were Lincoln, Nebraska, Washington, D.C., Omaha, Nebraska, New Haven, Connecticut, and Gilbert, Arizona. Seventh-14th places in the survey were all Arizona cities. Albuquerque was listed as 15th, and El Paso was ranked 100th. The bottom five in the report were Honolulu, Las Vegas, Nevada, North Las Vegas, Nevada, Detroit and Orlando, Florida.
View the full report at www.wallethub.com/edu/cities-unemployment-rates/73647/.