Some Layoffs Draw Headlines, Others Don't

Numerous media outlets reported this afternoon that the New Mexico State Personnel Board “voted” Tuesday to lay off 27 state workers, including seven people from New Mexico Magazine. It was also reported by A.P. that, “Union representatives asked the board to work to place the employees in other jobs,” instead of increasing the total on state's unemployment rolls.

Certainly these layoffs are bad news for the individuals involved and their families. There are already thousands of people desperately seeking jobs in the state despite the fact that New Mexico’s unemployment trend has been bucking the national trend for several months now.

This story and the widespread media attention prompts at least two questions about how much more operational reform is still needed at the state level. First, with tens of thousands of private sector workers in New Mexico dismissed by a reeling private sector over the last few years, why does it take a Personnel “board vote” for state worker layoffs in areas where ongoing operating losses at a magazine enterprise are huge? Private sector management teams also serve as “boards.” And private sector managers are truly sympathetic to anyone who loses a job.

State Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson

However, it is clear that any realistic business person, dealing with their own capital and cash reserves, will always act much quicker to make sure his or her entity survives. Naturally the unrealistic business people....lose their own jobs. Second, why do state worker layoffs instantaneously make statewide media headlines when private sector workers have been suffering the same fate? Are public employee layoffs and the resulting hardships more noteworthy? Are the managerial belt-tightening decisions mysteriously tougher because the workers aren't private? Of course new Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson inherited the financial disaster unfolding at New Mexico Magazine from Bill Richardson appointee and former Tourism Secretary Michael Cerletti. However, after seven months on the job……Ms. Jacobson and the "board" now owns the operating record at New Mexico Magazine.

Some Layoffs Draw Headlines, Others Don't