Nevada jobless rate dips below 7 percent; 6.8 for Churchill

Nevada’s unemployment rate is now officially below the 7 percent mark in all the state’s major reporting areas, putting the state’s overall rate at just 6.6 percent for May.

Of the three metropolitan reporting areas, Carson City remains highest at 6.9 percent. But that’s a full nine-tenths less than it was in April and 1.4 percent under the 8.3 percent reported a year earlier.

“This is the first time since 2008 that all three metro areas have seen an unemployment rate less than 7 percent,” said Bill Anderson, chief economist for the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

He said job growth also exceeded what’s normally expected in the spring, increasing statewide by 8,000.

In Carson City, that increase was about 400 jobs leaving just 1,741 jobless in a labor force of 25,200.

In Reno/Sparks, the jobless rate fell to just 6.1 percent or 14,013 seeking work out of 230,800 while Las Vegas reported a rate of 6.6 percent with 68,862 jobless out of a million in the labor force.

Statewide, that means there are 93,300 looking for work out of a labor force of 1.42 million.

The Elko Micropolitan Area remains lowest despite the recent retractions in the mining industry with an unemployment rate of just 4.8 percent. That translates to 1,400 out of work among 29,100 workers.

Churchill County finished May pretty much in line with the major reporting areas: 738 out of work in a pool of 10,793. That translates to a jobless rate of 6.8 percent.

Douglas, likewise, reported 6.8 percent jobless: 1,518 out of 22,443.

While Lyon County remains significantly higher at 9 percent, that’s the first time in several years the county has had a jobless rate less than 10 percent.

As of the end of May, Mineral County was the only jurisdiction still in double-digits at 10.7 percent. That means 175 without work out of 1,638 in the labor pool there.