State labor officials warned Thursday that unemployment benefits are scheduled to come to a close for about 50,000 New Mexico residents in early September, as the federal government ends supplemental payments to people who lost jobs or self-employment income during the pandemic.
Employers are warily watching whether those individuals will return to work and stabilize the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund that is sustained by payroll taxes. The fund has been whipsawed by the pandemic and related financial crisis, while employers were temporarily shielded from tax rate increases.