Nevada unemployment holds steady at 4.6 percent in June

Nevada's unemployment rate remained slightly above the national average in June, at 4.6 percent, due in large part to what a state economist described Friday as an "unrelenting" housing slump.

The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said the seasonally adjusted rate remained unchanged from May, when Nevada went above the national average for the first time in five years. The national average in both May and June was 4.5 percent.

"The unrelenting slump in the housing market continues to be a major contributor to the labor market decline," said Bill Anderson, the agency's chief economist.

While construction hiring was up between May and June, Anderson added that over the past year such jobs are down about 5,200.

Overall employment in Nevada has increased by 1.7 percent over the past year, but Anderson said that's barely above the national rate of 1.5 percent and is the lowest growth rate in Nevada since September 2002.

Total employment in all industries decreased by about 6,000 to about 1.3 million between May and June. There were about 63,200 unemployed Nevadans in June, up from 57,300 jobless people a month earlier.

For the Las Vegas area, non-seasonally adjusted unemployment increased from 4.2 percent to 4.7 percent between May and June. There were about 913,000 people working in the area and the jobless total was 45,500.

The Reno area saw non-seasonally adjusted unemployment increase from 4.2 percent to 4.4 percent in the same period. Employment totaled 217,500, and about 10,000 people were out of work.

Carson City-area unemployment increased from 4.8 percent to 5 percent between May and June. Employment in the area totaled about 26,900 and unemployment totaled about 1,400.

Unemployment in Elko and Eureka counties increased from 3.1 percent to 3.6 percent from month to month. There were 25,800 people working in the area during June and about 1,000 without jobs.

A breakdown of hiring statewide by specific industries showed a month-to-month decrease of 5,000 workers in government as school terms ended; 1,000 more workers in construction; about 1,500 more employees in the leisure-hospitality industry, which includes hotel-casinos; and 500 more employees in education and health service hiring.