On Monday, a new store is being built in Carlisle, Albuquerque. (Roberto E. Rosales / Journal)
Only 27% of Albuquerque’s likely voters are positive about the city’s economy, though many say their personal finances have not changed much since the COVID-19 pandemic in New Mexico more than a year and a half ago.
A new magazine poll found that 25% of respondents rated the strength of Albuquerque’s economy as “good,” while only 2% rated it as “excellent”. 71% of those questioned rated the economy as “fair” or “bad”.
However, Brian Sanderoff, president of Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc., which conducted the survey, said the city’s business leaders have a positive side: most of these respondents (50% total) rate the economy as fairer than than that lowest possibility. A similar survey from 2017 found that 35% of respondents rated the economy as “bad” and a further 47% as “fair”.
“So we still have a long way to go to make our economy stronger, but we have at least half the people who rate it as ‘fair’,” said Sanderoff.
As with other polls, views of the city’s economy showed a strong partisan divide: 34% of Republicans rated the economy poor, compared with 12% of Democrats. Sanderoff said views about the city’s economic progress are often correlated with which party holds the highest office.
“If we had a Republican mayor, I think we’d see more Republicans praising the general direction of the economy,” Sanderoff said.
Sanderoff added that the pandemic likely played a role in respondents’ views. The pandemic and related restrictions designed to curb the spread of the virus helped a number of businesses close their doors while at the same time leading to a surge in unemployment in New Mexico and across the country. Sanderoff said the combination of high unemployment and companies struggling to find workers would leave a wide range of people unhappy with the economic situation.
“Those are the main ingredients in people complaining about the strength of the economy,” said Sanderoff.
Even so, the survey also found that the pandemic did not change most respondents’ perception of their own financial situation. When asked whether they were financially better, worse or about the same as before the pandemic, 66% of those surveyed said their financial situation was about the same.
“COVID had a tremendous economic, social, emotional impact on Albuquerque, but there were still the majority of people who managed to keep their jobs and weather,” Sanderoff said. “And we see that in the data.”
The survey found that 16% of respondents said they were financially better off than they were before the pandemic, while 18% said they were worse off. Among the respondents without a high school diploma, almost twice as many said that they were worse off (27%) than they were in a better position (14%).
While respondents were less than optimistic when asked directly about the economy, Sanderoff said the survey also showed the economy was the number one priority for fewer Albuquerque residents. When asked what they think is the biggest problem for residents of the Albuquerque subway area today, only 3% of respondents named the weak economy and put it behind crime, homelessness, poor education, COVID-19 and that proposed football stadium on the list of responses.
“It wasn’t that long ago that the economy was the most important thing,” said Sanderoff.
The poll, held between October 15 and October 21, was based on a scientific, city-wide sample of 536 likely regular local election voters. The sample of voters has an error rate of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. The margin of error grows for subsamples.
All interviews were conducted by live professional interviewers, with multiple callbacks to households who did not initially answer the phone.
Both mobile phone numbers (82%) and landline connections (18%) were used.
On Wednesday: Albuquerque voters comment on the biggest problems the city is facing.
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