Gov. Richardson Points to Home State Job Growth

by Casey Johnson

On his website, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson boasts that he has overseen the creation of 80,000 jobs in New Mexico, many of them good, high-paying jobs. Is it true?

FactCheck.org, a respected political “watchdog” group, offers this summary of Bill Richardson’s claim:

“Democratic presidential contender Bill Richardson boasts of creating 80,000 jobs since becoming governor of New Mexico. Not yet, he hasn't. The state has gained fewer than 76,000 payroll jobs since he took office, and official figures showed a mere 68,100 gain when he first started making his inflated boast last year.”

The Albuquerque Tribune recently ran an article on their website that was critical of Richardson’s jobs claim. In the article, “Richardson's people dispute that his numbers are off and apparently have different numbers and a different definition of ‘jobs.’”

And according to the popular website, politifact.com (an affiliate of the St. Petersburg Times),

“the latest employment report from the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, a group that tracks job data, said the state ranked 14th for job growth in August 2007. The state hasn't ranked sixth since August 2006.”

Lesson: It is clear that Richardson’s claim is mostly true. New Mexico has, undoubtedly, not fared as well as Richardson has claimed (according to the most recent data), but the state has experienced a substantial amount of job growth in recent years.