Nevada’s unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent by the end of May.
But that is significantly higher than the national rate of 5.8 percent, driven by the 8.9 percent jobless rate in Clark County because of the high percentage of hospitality and leisure workers still out of work. Clark has the state’s highest unemployment rate.
By comparison, the rate was just 5 percent in Carson City and 4.5 percent in Washoe and Douglas counties. Lyon is at 5.5 percent.. Lowest is Eureka County where just 2.2 percent of workers are without jobs. Across the state, 10 of Nevada’s 17 counties are below 4 percent unemployment.
The rate in Churchill County was just 3.2 percent and, in Storey, 4.9 percent.
There were just 15,401 initial claims filed for unemployment benefits in May. That is down 62.3 percent from April and the lowest number of initial claims in the calendar year so far.
There were 1.44 million Nevadans working as of May this year. That is 361,000 more than in May 2020 at the height of the pandemic shutdown.
Unemployment officials say that leaves just under 120,000 jobless in the state. Of those, 12,140 are in Washoe County and 1,342 in Carson City.
DETR Chief Economist Dave Schmidt said most claimants have exhausted their regular program benefits and are receiving pandemic extension program benefits.
