Carson City unemployment still lags at 6.8 percent

Nevada’s overall unemployment rate fell to 6.6 percent in September, a seven-tenths drop over 2014 and two-tenths down from August.

Carson City’s rate, however, remained higher, matching the Las Vegas reporting area’s 6.8 percent jobless percentage. Carson was at 7.1 percent in August, so the September number is still an improvement.

The statewide average, however, was pulled down by the 5.9 percent rate reported for the Reno-Sparks area and Elko’s 4.8 percent unemployment rate.

Bill Anderson, economist for the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, said the state and its local reporting areas continue to point to overall improvement in Nevada’s economy.

Las Vegas reported adding 20,800 jobs over the year while Reno-Sparks saw a 6,500 job increase.

In Carson City, which is heavily dependent on public sector jobs, the increase has been 200 jobs over the year.

The lowest jobless rates were reported in Esmeralda County — 4.4 percent — the highest in Mineral at 10.3 percent.

Contrary to a year ago, Mineral is the only county still seeing double-digit unemployment.

According to data supplied by the Employment Security Division, Lyon, Storey and Statewide, some 94,300 people are looking for work in a labor force of 1.43 million.

For Carson City, the labor pool is 25,300 with 1,700 or so looking for work.

Churchill County saw a decrease in unemployment of two-tenths from August through September to 6.8 percent. Just 711 of the 10,661 in the labor force are looking for work there.

Lyon County, where unemployment was double-digit as recently as April, reported just 8.2 percent out of work. That translates to 1,879 in a labor force of 22,818.

Douglas County saw a three-tenths decrease to 6.2 percent with 1,406 seeking work out of 22,547.

The Carson City area has the highest percentages of manufacturing employment. Lyon leads the way at nearly 18 percent of jobs. Storey boasts more than 14 percent of jobs in manufacturing while Carson is just under 10 percent.