Q&A: Workforce Solutions head talks unemployment, services

Bill McCamley was recently appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to oversee the state’s Department of Workforce Solutions.

The former Las Cruces area state legislator and Dona Ana County commissioner previously served as chairman of the House Labor and Economic Development Committee and executive director of the New Mexico Rural Development Council.

McCamley came to the offices of The News between a wind energy lab at Clovis High School and a business forum at the Eastern Plains Council of Governments to talk about the department and its goals and challenges.

First question, what does Workforce Solutions do?

The basic responsibilities of Workforce Solutions are to run the unemployment program for the state. We’ve been having a lot of issues with that as we waived the rules temporarily for federal employees affected by the shutdown. Luckily, that got resolved, but we had about 1,300 folks who were federal employees applying for unemployment.

We also deal with regular employment claims. That’s the biggest responsibility, by number of people, that we’ve got.

It’s our job to run the local offices. You have one on Main Street (111 N. Main in Clovis). It’s our job to oversee the staff there and all of the programs they do, so when people come in and they need resumes, they come in looking for a job, to do the job search requirements for unemployment. When employers need to find people, they hopefully come and sign up with our programs.

The big thing we do other than that is wage enforcement. If you’re supposed to be paid the minimum wage or you’re working on a public works project and are supposed to make a set wage, and you don’t make those things you come to our office. We also run the human rights bureau; so if you’re being discriminated against you can file with our office.

Is there any type of statute of limitations on that? In many wage theft cases, employees discover after the fact they weren’t getting paid correctly.

It’s an adjudicatory process. It’s a civil fine right now. One of our big issues is we have a backlog of about 1,800 cases with the state we’re trying to catch up on. That’s both a resource issue and a process issue.

If you’re supposed to be making minimum wage, or you’re supposed to be making the public works minimum wage and you’re not, either the company needs to fix their paperwork — which is what’s happening most of the time — or it’s intentional and it’s theft, no different than going to your piggy bank and taking money.

Since you have so many cases on backlog, isn’t that a disincentive to anybody who needs those services? I wouldn’t feel like I had leverage against a company if I’m in line behind 1,800 people.

That’s our job (to reduce the backlog). There are a lot of organizations letting people know they can do those sorts of things, and that’s contributed to the backlog. It’s a good thing, because if people feel their wages are being withheld they should file a claim. We just need to do a better job of working on those and getting through them so we can get people what they’re owed.

What’s a service you offer most job-seekers don’t know about?

If you come into our office, we offer training. The biggest thing we get is resume building. If you don’t have a resume, we have folks who can help you write one and we can post it for employers who have signed up with our program.

Our job is, if you’re looking for a job, and this business is saying, “We’re looking for people,” how do we marry those together?

One of the things we need to do better with Workforce Solutions is to reach out to those businesses and say our services are what you need. In some cases, I’m hearing they are and in a lot of cases I’m hearing, “You haven’t reached out to us,” or, “We tried your service once, and it didn’t work very well.” We have to fix those things and move forward.

My whole philosophy on public service is asking two simple questions: What are we doing right, what are we doing wrong ... and then saying how do we do more of the former and less of the latter?

With our unemployment higher than our neighboring states and our wages lower than our neighboring states, we need to do a better job of marrying those two to be more like Colorado, Arizona and Texas.

What’s a service you offer employers might not know about?

We have a lot of people in our system who come in looking for work. I’ll also say there are some policy things we need to be doing. The first is expanding apprenticeship programs.

Other states like South Carolina, Maryland and Colorado have done a really good job of expanding the traditional apprenticeship model. Most people think welder, carpenter, those sort of journeyman occupations. What other states have done is added IT, police officers, financial services.

You can go in without getting a four-year degree or even a two-year degree and get a certificate in what the business wants while making money at the time and come out with hopefully a job and some money in the bank, along with an education ... We are going to work really hard to expand and grow apprentice programs.

If you want to work with your hands, that’s great. I tell people all the time I have a master’s from Harvard and my girlfriend has a two-year radiology degree from a community college. Until three weeks ago, she was making a heck of a lot more money than I was.

There are plenty of people who want to work. We just need to make sure they have the skills necessary to get the jobs that are available.

Best skills to have?

Statewide, the two biggest areas where we’re experiencing gaps in terms of education and available jobs are STEM degrees. Engineers, doctors, physicists, all of those people that work at the labs and the (military) bases employing people with high-level degrees, we don’t have enough of those.

I was at Los Alamos a couple of weeks ago, and they were saying they were begging people to come work here that have the education needed.

The other area would be those two-year degree or certification degrees. We’re talking about plumbers and electricians, but the larger case is healthcare.

Three of the top four needs our office looks at are in the healthcare field — nurses, med techs, behavioral and community health workers. If you want a job and are willing to go into these types of fields, you’re going to get a job and it’s going to pay pretty well.

Does that change when you go to different areas of the state? Are the characteristics different for Curry and Roosevelt counties?

No. These two things we find as gaps everywhere in the state. That’s doctors all the way down to community health care workers.

Last question: If I’m coming into one of your offices, how should I prepare? What materials do I bring? How much time should I expect to spend there?

You want to go in and understand where you’re at, and you want to spend some time getting yourself into the system. If you have a resume, you need to bring it in. If you don’t, it’s obviously going to take more time.

Our office is right here on Main Street. Come in, work with our staff. They want to work with you; they’re really interested in moving things forward.

Gov. Lujan Grisham wants to make sure we have an economy that works for everybody. We want to make sure people who come in will be able to get a job they can be proud of.

One of the things we’re looking at is raising the minimum wage. That’s another one of the responsibilities I’m going to have, working with our Legislature to raise our minimum wage to at least $10 an hour, and then $11 and $12 in subsequent years. Nobody should work 40 hours a week and live in poverty, but unfortunately that’s what we have in some of our jobs right now. That’s not a situation the governor is comfortable with, or I’m comfortable with.

— Compiled by Editor Kevin Wilson and edited for length and clarity