Nevada’s job growth highest in nation

Economists told the Economic Forum on Thursday Nevada’s jobs growth rate is once again the best in the nation.

The growth rate was tops until the 2007 recession but dropped to last in the nation in 2009 and 2010 before beginning to recover.

Chris Robison of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation told forum members from 2010 to 2014 Nevada businesses added nearly 100,000 jobs, much of those additions in the state’s largest employer — the leisure industry — and the state’s hardest hit sector — construction.

Robison said this year, the state is on track to add another 40,000 jobs. Leisure and Hospitality industry has added 16,000 this year, he said.

The result is the lowest unemployment level — 6.6 percent — since June 2008 and total employment of 1.27 million, almost back to the peak before the recession.

Robison said the vast majority of job advertisements — 89 percent — are now for full time rather than part time jobs

Fellow DETR economist Jeremey Hays told the panel those numbers don’t take into account the announcements of the past two weeks — construction of the Hyperloop test track and Faraday Future’s auto manufacturing plant, both at Apex in North Las Vegas. Together they are expected to bring several thousand new jobs to the state.

In addition, the Tesla/Panasonic battery plant in Storey County will soon be ramping up its employment.