Data Brief: Challenges Facing Albuquerque’s Modern Workforce
Summary
Bernalillo County, New Mexico has almost 472,000 hourly workers—nearly two-thirds of its total workforceb—who would benefit from updating workplace protections to match our modern workweek. Across multiple measures, hourly workers are more likely than salaried workers to experience volatile, precarious schedules. A national survey found that 41 percent of early-career hourly workers know their schedules a week or less in advance and half of the hourly workers in the study said their schedules were decided by their employer alone. Nearly three-quarters of hourly workers reported that their weekly work hours had fluctuated in the past month.
This brief examines who the County’s nearly half-million hourly workers are; the working conditions they face; and the tailored policies that public officials can enact to match the changing rhythms of today’s workplace.