Officials: Nevada job growth fastest in nation for 10th straight month

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Job growth in Nevada has now been fastest in the nation for 10 consecutive months, according to the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

The state added 5,200 jobs in July alone, for a total of 43,400 over the past year, the department reported last week.

Reno-Sparks added 1,400 jobs in July, 14,700 since July 2018, while Las Vegas added 4,100 jobs during the month for 18,200 over the course of the year. Carson City actually lost 100 jobs in July, but is up 1,100 since last July.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate continues to hover around 4 percent to 4.5 percent statewide. The seasonally adjusted rate was listed at 4.1 percent, while the raw rate came in at 4.5 percent.

That rate is being pulled up a bit by Las Vegas, where 4.7 percent of the labor force is jobless. But that is down a tenth from June.

The rate in Reno-Sparks, meanwhile, remained at just 3.4 percent in July; in Carson City, the rate was 4.1 percent.

“On the whole, the Silver State economy continues to grow with the number of jobs increasing in the metro areas and unemployment continuing to decline,” said Chief Economist David Schmidt.

He said while the rate was more mixed in rural counties, overall rates remain low.

“These indicators all point to the Nevada economy continuing to grow with new opportunities for employment,” he said.

There were 1.55 million in the labor force, according to the monthly report, and just 69.2 percent seeking work.

Across Reno-Sparks, riding the boom in construction and expansion at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, only 9,200 were looking for work in a pool of 266,900.

The Las Vegas reporting area reported 53,500 jobless in a pool of 1.13 million workers.

Elsewhere in the state, there were several counties reporting less than 4 percent unemployment: Douglas at 3.9 percent, Elko at 3.4 percent, Humboldt at 3.1 percent, Lander at 3.5 percent, Storey at 3.9 percent, White Pine at 3.4 percent and Eureka — lowest in the state — at just 3.1 percent.

Churchill County is at 4.1 percent jobless. That translates to 443 looking for work in a pool of 10,762.

Douglas County has 937 job seekers in its labor force of 23,659 and Lyon County 1,180 out of 23,285, a jobless rate of 5.1 percent. The only other county over 5 percent is Nye, highest in the state at 5.8 percent jobless.