The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions says they are increasing their efforts to crack down on fraudulent unemployment benefit claims. The announcement comes after the department received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to audit 50 claimants a week for potential fraud, as well as hook up to a national online system that tracks previous claimants who have returned to work. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports:

With the growth in the number of claims paid, the amount of overpayments has risen in the past five years, up from $6 million in 2006 to $27 million in 2010. That is according to federal figures that track the overpayments that states can reasonably be expected to discover and try to recover. At the same time, overall claims paid have risen from about $99 million in 2006 to $310 million in 2010.

The department uses figures that are compiled through the federal Department of Labor’s Benefit Accuracy Measurement Program, which audits 480 random cases in New Mexico a year to check the accuracy of benefit decisions.

The percent of the overpayments that are fraudulent has remained about the same, [Workforce Solutions Department Secretary] Bussey said, but the department wants to look anew at what it could do to reduce that number.

It also wants to work more at reaching out to other state and federal agencies on cases in which prosecution might be needed.

Intentional fraud is less common than simple misunderstandings or mistakes on the part of either the claimant or the government. Bussey told the New Mexican that the average formerly unemployed person will continue to withdraw unemployment benefits four to five weeks after they have obtained a new job.

The department hasn’t prosecuted anyone for unemployment benefit fraud in five years. Currently, the department will request that fraudulent claimants return the money and penalize them by denying them benefits for a certain amount of time. It will also use measures such as intercepting tax returns and garnishing wages to recoup the money.

The nationwide database, called the National Directory of New Hires, was established by the federal welfare reform law in 1996 as a way to improve child support payment enforcement, but can also be used by states to verify that they are making accurate unemployment payments.

The rate has increased from 6.8 percent from last year, however. All the numbers are provided by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.

Three private sector industries, in addition to federal, state and local government, have gained jobs over the past year. The leisure and hospitality industry was the big winner, with 2,200 jobs added. The Department of Workforce Solutions said that the good ski season that ended a few months ago helped in this regard.

The educational and health services and manufacturing industries also gained jobs, but at a lower rate. The manufacturing industry had “lost thousands of jobs over the course of the national recession” and posted gains for the first time in three years.

The construction industry was down by 5,500 jobs over the last year while the industry “often considered a barometer for the rest of the economy,” the professional and business services industry, lost 3,800 jobs over the last year. Other industries losing jobs included the mining industry, the retail trade industry and the transportation, warehousing and utilities industry.

In the Albuquerque area, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped from 9 percent in April to 8.8 percent in May. This was still up from 7 percent in May 2009.

In the Las Cruces area, the unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in May, down from 8.3 percent in April. This is still up from 6.7 percent in May of 2009.

In the Santa Fe Area, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.8 percent in May. The unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in April, and 5.9 percent in May 2009.

Farmington continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the large metro areas, 10.3 percent in May 2010, down from 10.6 in April. In May 2009, the unemployment rate was 6.7 percent.

Overall, New Mexico is in the middle of the pack when it comes to unemployment. The 8.4 percent unemployment rate in May ranks New Mexico 28th in unemployment rate. Nevada ranks first with 14 percent. North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate, just 3.6 percent.

In May, 2009, New Mexico’s unemployment rate of 6.8 percent ranked 40th.

The state lost 15,500 jobs from April 2009 to April 2010 and only two of the state’s industries grew jobs over the last year, led by the government and temporary work provided by the federal government with the census. Government gained 2,500 jobs total over the last year.

Educational and health services was the lone private-sector industry group that grew jobs over the past calendar year — 2,200 jobs since last April.

That hardest hit industry was the construction industry which lost 5,400 jobs in 12 months.

In the Albuquerque area, the unemployment rate was 9 percent, down from 9.2 percent in March. This is up 2.1 percent from April 2009. According to the Department of Workforceo Solutions, “the April 2010 nonfarm employment total was the lowest for the month since 2004, an indicator of the recession’s severity. Negative growth persisted for the nineteenth consecutive month as only three of the 12 major industry divisions added jobs.”

In the Las Cruces area, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent in April, down from 8.5 percent in March. This is still up from 6.3 percent in April 2009. The Las Cruces economy had its 16th straight month of negative job growth in the area.

In the Santa Fe area the April unemployment rate was at 7 percent, down from 7.5 percent in March. The unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in April 2009. The Santa Fe job market “appears to be improving” after a weak market in the past two years.

In Farmington ,t he unemployment rate dropped to 10.1 percent in April, down from 11.2 percent in March. This is still much higher than the 6.3 percent unemployment rate in April of 2009.

New Mexico’s April unemployment rate ranks 28th out of the the fifty states and the District of Columbia. The highest in April was Michigan, with a 14 percent unemployment rate. The lowest, as it has been for months, is North Dakota, with a 3.8 percent unemployment rate.

As for New Mexico’s neighbors, Arizona ranks 19th with a 9.5 percent unemployment rate, Texas ranks 32nd with an 8.3 percent unemployment rate, Colorado ranks 34th with an 8 percent unemployment rate, Utah ranks 37th with a 7.3 percent unemployment rate and Oklahoma ranks 46th with a 6.6 percent unemployment rate.

The national unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent.

“New Mexico has experienced job losses from the impact of the national recession, and we have been especially hard hit in the goods-producing industries of mining, construction, and manufacturing,” a news release from the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions said. “The state relies more heavily on mining and construction employment than the national average, so these declines have hit the state disproportionately.”

Most areas of employment had small drops in unemployment this month, but the leisure and hospitality industry added 1,300 jobs and the retail trade industry added 300 jobs. The educational and health services industry dropped 500 jobs from February to March.

There were 3,900 government jobs created in the state, paced by the 2,600 workers hired to help collect information for the U.S. Census.

The unemployment rate in the Albuquerque metro area rose to 9.2 percent, up from 8.8 percent. The unemployment rate in the metro area was 6.8 percent in March of 2009.

In the Las Cruces metro area, the March unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in March, up from 8.1 percent in February and 6.2 percent in March of 2009.

In the Santa Fe area, the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent in March, up from 7.2 percent in February. In March of 2009, the unemployment rate was 5.6 percent.

The unemployment rate in Farmington was 11.3 percent in March, up from 10.7 percent in February. In March of 2009, the unemployment rate was 6 percent.

The number put New Mexico 34th in job growth, at -2.1 percent near states like Idaho, Oregon and Alabama. Only two states, Alaska and North Dakota, along with the District of Columbia, gained jobs from March 2009 to March 2010. Nevada lost the most jobs in the past year.

New Mexico continues to be around the average in unemployment, ranking 28th this month. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate with 14.1 percent while North Dakota has the smallest at 4 percent. In March of 2009, New Mexico’s unemployment rate of 6.3 percent was the 10th smallest.

However, recovery from the state economy’s nadir could be on its way, New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions economist Mark Boyd told the New Mexico Business Weekly.

“New Mexico may have reached a statistical low point in August from which a slow recovery can be staged,” Boyd’s most recent monthly newsletter on the state’s economy says. “The job losses already recorded will remain with us for a long time. Improvement in the numbers may simply reflect comparisons to the record-low levels reported last year.

“The extent of the losses is such that it will likely be several years until employment reaches pre-recession levels again.”

So the worst may be over — but the new governor will be facing high unemployment rates for the foreseeable future.

August’s unemployment rate was up from 7.0 percent in July and 4.3 percent a year ago, the release reads.

Despite the higher unemployment, New Mexico appears better off than some other states, given the national unemployment rate of 9.7 percent.

Nash also notes that the agency is this weekend is upgrading its mainframe computer, which should mean faster information processing.

The mainframe handles unemployment insurance claims and the related tax system. Access to the unemployment insurance call center and the department’s unemployment Web site will be inoperable from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday. The call center plans to reopen at 9 a.m. Sunday and operate until 4 p.m.

The upgrade to the IBM mainframe will “further capacity and increase capability for processing claims,” department spokeswoman Carrie Moritomo said.

Deputy Secretary Ken Ortiz stated in a news release that while “the allegations contained in the indictments are serious, they concern actions that are unrelated to (Vigil-Giron’s) work with the department.”

Vigil-Giron is a constituent liaison for the department’s labor and industrial division.

She and others indicted — lobbyists Joseph Kupfer and Elizabeth Kupfer and contractor Armando Gutierrez — each face 50 counts including money laundering, fraud, soliciting or receiving kickbacks and tax evasion. They’re accused of bilking taxpayers out of millions of dollars between 2004 and 2006 by falsifying invoices to the secretary of state’s office.

The release from Ortiz’s office states that the department will have no further comment on Vigil-Giron’s indictment “until it has had an opportunity to review the matter.”

“Until that time, Ms. Vigil-Giron is expected to continue to fulfill her work duties,” the release states.

The problem was blamed on technical difficulties.

“We realize our customers rely on receiving their payments in a timely manner,” said Secretary Betty Sparrow Doris of the Department of Workforce Solutions. “What occurred overnight was an unforeseen system error and I want to assure our customers that we are working to prevent this from happening in the future.”Those who did not receive their checks should be able to receive their payments within 72 hours.

The latest problem with the Department of Workforce Solutions comes on the heels of the need to hire more workers after callers to a call center to make unemployment claims were left on hold for hours or were simply not able to get through to make a claim.

Vigil-Giron lands state job

Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who left the Secretary of State’s Office under a cloud, has landed a job at the Department of Workforce Solutions in a job that pays more than $60,000, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

According to the story:

Vigil Giron’s duties will include analyzing draft legislation, conducting employee training for the Human Rights Bureau and dealing with constituent complaints, a department spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Vigil-Giron, a Democrat, served three terms as New Mexico’s secretary of state, from 1987 to 1990, 1999 to 2002 and from 2003 to 2006.
The Workforce Solutions job is Vigil-Giron’s second hire in state government since she left elected office in 2006.

Son of UNM president lands well-paying job at university

The Journal also is reporting that UNM has hired the son of President David Schmidly to a position that pays $94,000.

The story says:

UNM’s physical plant director hired Brian Schmidly as associate director of sustainability on Monday. The new position was mandated by a sustainability policy approved by President Schmidly in June.
Brian Schmidly, who has served as marketing director for Centex Homes New Mexico for the last 18 months, will spearhead development and implementation of UNM’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He is slated to begin his new job Oct. 29.
Exactly what Brian Schmidly’s duties will be are still being worked out.
President Schmidly said he had nothing to do with his son getting the job. He said regents were informed Tuesday. Schmidly said the hire doesn’t violate UNM’s nepotism policy because his son will report to managers several levels below him.
“My son’s a citizen of this state,” President Schmidly said. “He has a right to apply for a job at the university. He has a right to be considered for that position.”
Brian Schmidly declined comment.

Looks like all you folks who wanted to help UNM reduce its greenhouse gas emissions are out of luck.

Pearce attacks, Udall tries to deflect in first debate of U.S. Senate race

Tom Udall and Steve Pearce also squared off in the U.S. Senate race’s first debate. And the Santa Fe New Mexican has this to report:

In the first debate between U.S. Senate candidates Tom Udall and Steve Pearce, which took place Wednesday night, Democrat Udall threw the first punch: He referred to the “Pearce/Bush tired old policies” during his opening statement, tying his Republican opponent to an unpopular president.

But Pearce definitely had the funniest line in the debate. In his closing remarks, after saying Udall has fought domestic oil drilling, mining and gun rights in the past but now claims to support these issues, Pearce quipped, “Tom, if you want to look like Steve Pearce, you’re going to have to get a haircut to look like Steve Pearce.”

Now that’s clever.