Employment improves as number of jobless drops

Nevada unemployment finished the month of July a full percentage point lower than it was a year ago at 6.9 percent in raw totals.

The Las Vegas and Reno reporting areas also saw a full percent decrease ending the month at 7 and 6.3 percent respectively while Carson City reported a nine-tenths decrease to 7.2 percent.

Those numbers result in the state’s overall 6.9 percent unemployment rate for the month.

All three metropolitan areas in the state added jobs over the past year with Las Vegas leading the way by adding 28,100 jobs. Total jobs increased 7,200 in Reno-Sparks but just 300 jobs in Carson City.

DETR Chief Economist Bill Anderson said the construction industry is at the forefront, growing more than 10 percent over the year.

“Since the recessionary trough, the construction industry has increased 50 percent,” Anderson said.

That industry now reports a total of 71,400 jobs in the state.

Statewide, the July figures show about 96,800 Nevadans looking for work in a labor force of 1.42 million. The majority, 74,200 out of just more than 1 million workers, are in the Las Vegas reporting area with another 14,500 jobless in Reno out of about 231,000.

In Churchill County, state officials report 10,628 workers, just 750 of whom are jobless. The unemployment rate there is 7 percent.

Douglas County has a 6.8 percent rate with 1,496 seeking work in a pool of 22,074.

Lyon County, with 22,671 workers available, has a 9 percent unemployment rate. There, 2,043 were seeking employment as of July.

In Carson City, the number is just 1,800 of 25,451 workers.