Clark County job growth among highest in nation

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004 | 11 a.m.

Clark County had the second-highest job growth of the nation's largest counties from March 2003 to March 2004, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday.

Clark County added 40,000 new jobs in those 12 months, second only to Orange County, Calif., which added 49,900 new jobs.

Clark County tied with Riverside, Calif., for eighth in the nation in terms of percentage job growth, with 5.4. percent growth.

The Labor Department ranked the largest 317 counties in the nation -- counties with more than 75,000 workers.

The nation as a whole saw 0.8 percent job growth during the period. The national employment total in March 2004 was 127.8 million.

Keith Schwer, director of the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research, said Clark County continues to benefit from business investment, which drives long-term growth.

"We're a service-based economy and we tend to create more jobs overall than manufacturing, where technology and foreign competition have slowed, and in some cases contracted, growth," he said.

He said growth has been concentrated in the Southwest, which was supported by the data that showed that Maricopa County in Arizona, which represents the greater Phoenix area, also posted strong gains.

Of the 40,000 new jobs, three sectors led the list: construction (about 9,500 new jobs); professional services, such as architecture, accounting, engineering, consulting, advertising (about 7,100); and leisure and hospitality (6,500), said Michael Buso, economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Statewide, Nevada also led the nation in job growth with a 4.7 percent increase, according to the Labor Department data.

Population growth fuels job growth, said Jim Shabi, a Nevada state economist.

In the 1990s, three major casino construction waves created the job growth, he said.

The housing construction industry is still strong -- 11,900 new construction jobs were added statewide between September 2003 and September 2004, Shabi said. But job growth in recent years has been less dependent on new casino hotels and more dependent on sectors that support the growing population, such as retail jobs and medical and education jobs, Shabi said.

"What we are seeing is that we still lead the nation in growth, but we are doing it differently than we did in the previous decade," Shabi said.

Job growth should continue at a "substantial pace," at least until the new housing market cools, Shabi said.

"And I am not about to predict when that will happen," he said.

It's also possible that Nevada continues to show relatively strong numbers in part because other states suffer more from jobs being outsourced to other countries, said Michael Piore, a political economy professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"It's hard to export these (gambling) jobs overseas," he said.

Wages also increased, according to the Labor Department data.

In the first quarter of this year, Clark County had an average weekly wage of $693, compared with the $758 national average. The weekly wage in Clark County increased 5.8 percent from the first quarter of 2003, compared with a 3.8 percent increase nationally.

Sun business writer

Michelle Swafford contributed to this report.