With historically high unemployment rate in New Mexico, not all employees have returned to work

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico- - New Mexico's unemployment rate remains historically high, despite a large demand for qualified workers across the state.

"Unemployment is not free money," said Kathryn Kopp, an employee who chose to return to work at the Corner Deli in west Las Cruces. "It comes out of your taxes. It comes out of your social security. It comes out of your schools."

At Corner Deli, owner Mark Stephens said he thankfully had no problems bringing his employees back.

“They just have a good work ethic," said Mark Stephens, the owner. "They just were brought up with, ‘You work if you want something... you go out and work.”

In March, New Mexico had an unemployment rate of 8.3%, which was higher than all of its neighboring states.

As ABC-7 reported last week, some restaurant owners are struggling to hire back staff.

“We’ve been trying for a while now to get people back to work," said Frankie Torres, the owner of Chalas Wood Fire Grill. "We just can’t do it.”

As reported by the Albuquerque Journal, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham promised to create new policies to convince unemployed New Mexicans to return to work.

"We need to both incentivize employees to go back to work and we’re going to need some accountability aspects,” the governor told business leaders last month, as quoted by the Journal.

“Business are going to have to struggle with (bringing) back their employees," said Saul Ramirez, a barista at Milagro Coffee y Espresso. "The government is sort of struggling to properly support the employees that actually need the help."