Nevada unemployment rate reaches 22-year low

Tuesday, March 28, 2000 | 10:28 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Unemployment in Nevada fell to 3.7 percent in February, its lowest rate in nearly 22 years.

The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reported today the rate dropped four-tenths of a percentage point from January and is four-tenths of a percentage point lower than the national rate. The 3.7 percent is the lowest since June 1978.

There were an estimated 36,000 people without jobs during the month, about 6,500 lower than in January.

Department Director Carol Jackson said, "The unemployment rate reflects economic strength of Nevada's urban areas." Statewide job growth is steady, although rural areas continue to suffer due to low gold prices and the stress on the mining industry, she said.

Unemployment in the Las Vegas metropolitan statistical area dropped to 3.7 percent in February, down from 4.4 percent in January. There were an estimated 27,600 people out of work in the area that includes Clark and Nye counties and Mohave County in Arizona.

Total statewide employment in February reached 999,300, up 5.1 percent from the same month of a year ago. Jackson noted the gaming and hotel industry showed good growth, with 241,500 people employed, an increase of 8.2 percent from February 1999.

She predicted the state's employment will continue to grow with existing businesses expanding and new businesses opening. Examples, she said, were the opening of a new Target store in North Las Vegas on March 5 that employs about 200; city approval in Las Vegas for plans for a 156,000-square-foot retail center in the northwest part of the city and Providian Financial Corp.'s opening of a 62,000-square-foot Henderson Internet credit card center on March 6. The center, she said, should employ about 600 customer service representatives and 100 management personnel by the end of the year.

Other projects, cited by Jackson include construction of a 68,000-square-foot Class A office building in the Green Valley Corporate Center business park in Henderson and several commercial projects associated with the Summerlin Centre in Clark County.

But for the first time in several years, there was a slackening off in construction industry employment with 88,000 people at work, down 1.7 percent from the same month a year ago. And the number of mining workers employed fell to 11,300, down 9.6 percent from February 1999.

The department said total jobs in manufacturing grew to 42,600, up 2.2 percent; transportation and public utilities reached 52,900, up 5.8 percent; trade accounted for 204,500 jobs, an increase of 7.2 percent and government workers numbered 120,600, up 2.4 percent from February 1999.

In the Las Vegas area, total employment registered 729,300 people on the job, up 5.8 percent from a year ago. But the number of construction workers declined by 3.5 percent to 70,700 as most major hotel projects were completed.

Manufacturing employment in the Las Vegas area rose 2.6 percent to 23,400; transportation and public utilities jobs increased 7.1 percent to 39,300; trade grew 7.8 percent to 151,800 jobs; hotels, gaming and recreation reported 190,900 people employed, up 9.3 percent from a year ago and government workers totaled 78,300, up 4.5 percent.