April jobless rate inches up from March

Statewide unemployment remained at a seasonally adjusted 5.8 percent in April.

The raw rate, however, rose a bit compared to March — up two-tenths to 6.1 percent.

The unadjusted rate allows a direct comparison with the different local unemployment reports, which are also unadjusted for seasonal impacts.

Las Vegas was the cause of that minor increase since unemployment ticked up a tenth to 6.1 percent in April. But Las Vegas is down a full eight-tenths compared to April 2015 and that metropolitan reporting area has now regained all 134,300 jobs lost during the recession.

Like Las Vegas, Churchill County’s unemployment rate ticked up in April from 5.8 to 6 percent. Some 629 people are seeking work there out of 10,470. Likewise, Douglas County saw a two-tenths increase to 6.1 percent. Douglas has a labor force of 22,553 and 1,365 jobless.

Over the year, the Reno/Sparks reporting area has decreased 1.2 percent and, this past month, went down a tenth to just 5.4 percent.

Carson City is also down a tenth compared to March and eight-tenths compared to April 2015. But the capital is still suffering compared to other major reporting areas with a 6.7 percent jobless rate.

Carson City has a total labor force of 24,800 with 1,700 out of work. One of Carson’s problems is the lack of growth in the governmental employment sector since public employment makes up a much bigger percentage of the workforce in the capital than it does in other parts of the state — about 9,200 workers.

Lyon County was up a tenth as well to 8.3 percent. The county’s 21,438 labor force has just 1,779 seeking work. That’s Nevada’s second highest unemployment rate, behind only Mineral where 9 percent of the labor force are jobless.

There are a total of 1.43 million in Nevada’s labor force, leaving just 83,800 seeking work. More than 64,000 of those people are in Las Vegas. In Reno/Sparks, just 12,600 are seeking employment in a pool of 232,800 workers.