Running Down the Neighborhood

New Mexico's job loss is the worst in the Southwest

The news that unemployment in the Land of Enchantment has dropped to 7.2 percent — tied with Connecticut and New Jersey for fourth-worst in America — offers a modicum of hope. At 12.5 percent in July 2020, the state’s peak has been cut by more than 40 percent.

But the jobless rate, while useful to track, has a flaw: It measures only the people unsuccessf…