February 2, 2021
(Press Staff Photo by Kendra Milligan)
Simon Sotelo with New Mexico Wild leads a hike last year on the West Fork of the Gila River in the Gila National Forest.
The New Mexico Tourism Department released a data dashboard last week to help New Mexicans understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state’s tourism industry on the county level, while making the prediction that, without state intervention, the state’s tourism economy would take up to seven years to recover.
※The numbers in this data dashboard and the findings from the Tourism Injury Index demonstrate how imperative it is that we invest in tourism recovery that supports every part of our state right now,” state Tourism Department Cabinet Secretary Jen Paul Schroer said in a press release.
Bill McCamley
As Congress continues to debate a relief bill that could extend a pair of much-used federal unemployment programs into 2021, New Mexico Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley said the state would work quickly to put the programs back in place once it gets federal guidance.
The roughly hour-long webinar is posted on the state workforce department’s YouTube page.
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During a virtual town hall earlier this week, McCamley provided an update on the two federal programs slated to disappear after the week of Dec. 26 and the workforce department’s efforts to send out a $1,200 one-time benefit to unemployed New Mexicans.