Nevada jobless rate hike tops nation

Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2001 | 10:42 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- Reacting to the September terrorist attacks, unemployment rates rose in 33 states last month, with the biggest gains in Nevada and Hawaii, the government said Tuesday.

The Labor Department said the jobless rate in Nevada rose 1.5 percentage point, climbing from 4.8 percent to 6.3 percent.

Unemployment in Hawaii, another state heavily dependent on tourism, rose 0.9 percentage point, from 4.4 percent to 5.3 percent.

Earlier this month the government reported that the national unemployment rate jumped in October to 5.4 percent, up from 4.9 percent in September. The September jobless survey did not capture layoffs that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.

Birgit Baker, director of the state Division of Employment Security, said today she has seen the latest national figures listing the Virgin Islands, Hawaii and Nevada as having the highest percentage gains in unemployment since the terrorist attacks.

She noted those are tourist destinations and the airlines had not resumed their full scheduling by that period, which was Oct. 15.

Figures in Nevada, she said, show the number of jobless the week ending Oct. 6 was 60 percent higher than the same week of a year ago. In the period between Oct. 20 and Nov. 10, there were 85 percent more unemployed than the same time a year ago. And the week ending Nov. 17 showed 36,033 people drawing unemployment benefits, or 77 percent higher than a year ago.

Economists said the statewide data showed that few sections of the country are being spared the impact of the economic slump.

"This report shows that the fallout from the terrorist attacks hit very hard on states dependent on the travel industry," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. "But it also shows that the economic weakness is very broad-based geographically."

Zandi said this contrasted with the last recession in 1990-91, when the Northeast and California suffered disproportionately.

Many economists believe the terrorist attacks have pushed the country into another recession, ending a record 10-year-long period of growth.

The government reported the overall economy declined at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the July-September quarter, with private economists predicting the economy will shrink at a faster 1.5 percent rate in the current quarter.

Zandi predicted the national unemployment rate would peak at around 6.5 percent sometime next summer, based on his view that the recession will turn out to be a relatively mild one. Unemployment dropped a year ago to a 30-year low of 3.9 percent.

The government report showed that the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country was Washington, where Boeing Co. has announced thousands of layoffs in response to the troubles in the airline industry. Washington state's unemployment rate climbed to 6.6 percent in October, up from 6.1 percent in September.

Other areas with high unemployment rates were Oregon, 6.5 percent in October, and Nevada and the District of Columbia, both at 6.3 percent. Sun reporter

Cy Ryan contributed to this story.