SANTA FE — In an effort to support the hiring and recruitment efforts of leisure and hospitality employers, the New Mexico Tourism Department (NMTD) has teamed up with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (DWS) to promote tourism jobs available for hire throughout the state.

Over 800 available hospitality and tourism jobs are currently listed. Employers within the leisure and hospitality industry are encouraged to submit their available job postings directly to the Ready NM website https://ready.nm.gov/hospitality to further promote their positions to jobs seekers.

“We have realized considerable tourism recovery thanks to our preparedness efforts, and now we’re ready to turn our focus to putting the industry back on track for growth,” Tourism Secretary Jen Paul Schroer said. “Assisting New Mexico’s leisure and hospitality employers fill their priority vacancies will better ensure we are prepared to accommodate the increase in travel demand we are already seeing.”

“Our work and success with this industry could not have been possible without the insights and support of employers who value their employees and respect that barriers they must overcome to return to work,” Workforce Solutions Acting Secretary Ricky Serna said. “Together we are strengthening the industry’s recruitment, hiring, and training processes.”

The New Mexico Labor Market Review for December 2021 indicates that New Mexico’s leisure and hospitality sector witnessed considerable job recovery. New Mexico reported 93,700 leisure and hospitality jobs for December 2021, which amounts to an increase of 2,200 jobs from November 2021 and 23,300 jobs from December 2020. Overall, New Mexico’s leisure and hospitality workforce is still down roughly 6.2 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The prioritization of leisure and hospitality jobs is an extension of the Ready NM initiative that was launched by NMDWS in collaboration with the New Mexico Higher Education Department (NMHED) and New Mexico Workforce Connection in 2021. The Ready NM partnership aims to provide easy, consolidated access to training, education, and employment resources for New Mexico’s employers and job seekers.

NMTD and NMDWS previously teamed up to forge a hospitality training reimbursement program that offered up to $4,480 per employee to cover the training costs of new and promoted employees within the leisure and hospitality sector.