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StumbleJobless rate leaps to 13.1 percent in Las Vegas
Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 | 6:53 a.m.
Beyond the Sun
CARSON CITY – Unemployment in the Las Vegas area jumped to 13.1 percent in July.
The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said the 13.1 percent compares to 12.3 percent in June and to 6.9 percent in July a year ago. Statewide, unemployment rose from 12 percent in June to 12.5 percent in July with 179,300 persons jobless.
Those working in construction and in hotels-casinos declined from June in Southern Nevada.
William Anderson, chief economist for the department, said “Nevada is in the midst of the longest, deepest recession since World War II and recent labor market trends show no sign of improvement, particularly unemployment which has surged at a record pace in recent months.”
He said, “The Las Vegas-Paradise metro area, including all of Clark County, has been particularly hard hit, with an unemployment rate of 13.1 percent. It is not only the highest unemployment rate among Nevada’s metro areas, it also ranks in the top five across all areas of similar size in the U.S.”
The national unemployment rate was 9.4 percent.
The department said the jobless rate in the Reno-Sparks area rose from 11.7 percent in June to 12.2 percent in July. Carson City’s rate increased from 11.5 percent to 11.7 percent in July. Unemployment in Elko inched up from 6.6 percent in June to 6.7 percent in July.
Anderson said since April the jobless rate has risen 1.9 percent, or 27,600 more unemployed -- the largest three-month surge on a percentage basis going back to 1976.
Total employment in the Las Vegas area fell from 886,400 in June to 880,300 in July. There were 132,600 jobless, or 7,800 more than in June. Anderson said the job market should rebound some this fall with the opening of City Center.
He said a reported 10,000 jobs will be created but some gains will be offset with losses in construction and cannibalization of existing properties.
Construction employment in Southern Nevada was off in July. The department reported 74,400 workers in that industry, down 2,200 from the previous month.
The hotel-casino industry had 153,400 people on the job in July, down 1,500 from June. And employment is 8.8 percent lower than a year ago in July. Anderson said the leisure and hospitality sector “continues to limp along.”
“For 13 months in a row, fewer visitors have come to Las Vegas,” Anderson said. In June the visitor count was down by 6.3 percent. “The drop in visitors and apparent change in playing habits is evident in gaming revenue figures.”
The department said employment in the trade, transportation and utilities sector fell by 400 jobs to 153,900 in the Las Vegas area. And the number working was 4.5 percent lower than a year ago in July.
Manufacturing employment in July dropped by 100 jobs to 23,800. But it was 7.8 percent lower than a year ago.
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13.1 % reported = 18.1% in reality. Add roughly 5 points to any figure reported.
city center is going to flop. it will be busy in the beginning, then it will slowly decline.
if not enough people are coming here to keep people employed at all the current resorts...what's going to bring in MORE people to justify city center?
its going to get worse before the economy improves; put on your seatbelts, its gonna be a bumpy ride.
As a Vietnam Veteran I went to the U.S. Vets for assistance. They insisted I had to declare myself a drug addict (statistic) before they would assist me. Talk about political extortion. I refused, went on the streets and made it on my own.
But wait - Congresswoman Berkeley went on an AIPAC funded trip to Israel. We should see more jobs as a result any day now.
stevenm...City Center will NOT flop. OK, so what that there is 18% unemployment. I hear the strategy is to cut room rates from $395.00 night
to a much more affordable $365.00 night and increase slot payout from 67% to 71%. AND just to prove my point,the buffets are going to be a super steal at $34.50 for breakfast. HA! All of middle america will be FLOCKING to this bargain strategy!!!!! I can hear it now. "Edna, we pay $3.99 for a grand slam, but you only get 3 pancakes. Over at city center, you get as many as 10 for just $34.50 (+22% tax, tip=$40 pp)
Thanks Obama and Reid for helping us out. Keep blaming Bush all you want, but many citizens know you are the problem.
Crystal ball...vegas...oh vegas...It's light up time, baby.
Legalize the weed and we'd see better days and nights ahead.
Jobs for growers, trimmers, bakers, rollers, runners, shop keepers.
They'd come back. And some would never leave!
They'd eat at our overpriced buffets and think how smart they are. They'd tip and think how nice they are. etc...
Steve,
It's criminal that veterans (or anyone else who becomes homeless) would be pressured into claiming they are drug or alcohol-addicted when they are not. This practice is no doubt related to the most available sources of funding.
By all reputable accounts, our horrendous economy is now making a far greater contribution to homelessness than are "addictions", but misrepresentations like the one you describe are extremely harmful in that they mis-label people in that situation in such a way that the general public is inclined to be less supportive of their plight.
Soylent Green, here we come!
Way to go Reid, no need to worry. Opromises & Pelosi have got your back. How's that stimulus working?
We need to raise more taxes and give away more free money. Come on harry Reid, your first stimulus plan got our unemployment over 13%, another one and we can get to 20%.
The recession began in Dec/2007, and the economy shrank 6 per cent in 4th qtr /2008 and 1st quarter/2009 which was under the watch of the Bush administration, although I don't blame the Bush admin for our predicament. It turns out that the few years before the recession the booming economy was attributable to the easy credit and oversized home equities. You take a away that froth and we have a more middling economy, which is not bad because consumers would not have incurred as much debt on their credit cards and homes and we would have had an easier time recovering from a recession. But of course with credit limits reduced, home equities gone , and layoffs the consumer will not be part of the equation for helping us out of the recession. If consumers are out of the picture, that affects vacation sites which are discretionary like LV. LV will be the last to recover from this recession. Hunker down my friends.
If you are willing to relocate - look into Texas where the unemployment dropped to 7.1%! They are actuallying adding jobs as we speak.
I'm with neiman1, just tax the spam out of those hard working rich people,
then give it to lazy, "Hey I'm entitled, cause I'm lazy and make poor choices people". Harry, you be a bum-32% unemployment. The only job openings will be the graveyard shift, Peppermills, giving change out to the 4 slot machines they have. ($4.65hr) Boooooooo!
I used to live in SF, now in Argentina. Pelosi was and still is a nut cracker
13.1% and The Construction trade has not even started renting their U Hauls yet.This could be Disastrous!
Vegas will be a ghost town in 20 years. It might look like one when the H1N1 virus hits this fall!
well, we could all save $2 million a month and put it back into bringing new business to LV - just by stopping the medical services to all the Illegals. Article in the Sun this week - Sunrise Hospital lays off 100 people, but spends $2 million a month on non-reimbursed services to Illegals...here's a job for the state --- hire workers that would put people back on the payrolls - hire people to go around and pick up all these people and drive them back to Mexico - it will still be cheaper than the stimulas plan !!
Boomer111,
I think you mean the extraordinarily lucky wealthy people who were born into the lap of luxury. The average working man works far harder than the truly self-entitled wealthy.
There are so many people getting fired from jobs because the entire company went bankrupt. The owner happily skips away with millions while his employees lose all there benefits and there paycheck.
It seems like the poor, self interested decisions of the wealthy are whats screwing over the poor.
And whats this talk about the stimulus plan working already? Its undoing years of poor decisions and nieman1 expects it to instantly undo all of that? The unemployment rate would be 30% without the stimulus plan. It was a necessary evil.
I don't think the conservatives need any responsibility for a while. They start wars, spend trillions on killing people instead of saving them and drove the economy into the ground.
Nevada does not really have unemployment rate of 13.1%. Nevada's method of calculating employment is not accurate. For example. Nevada does not include any self employed people of which there are at least a couple hundred thousand. Nevada also does not include military personnel, another 13,000. Consider the 4500 homes being sold by real estate brokers every month in Las Vegas. This is generating a lot of commission for a lot of brokers. The State does not count any of this. All my friends and I self employed and make a lot of money. But we're not counted as "employed"...
Krases;
Perhaps the solution then is to steal from the hard working rich, give to the lazy, self entitled poor who make lousy life decisions. "I make stupid decisions, but I'm entitled!!!" gimme gimme.
Perhaps the better solution is have your liberal friends create yet another pork barrel give to the lazy program. Free housing? Ya! $800,000,000 of
tax payer $$ and buy the blue empty building on LV blvd and give them rooms there
Nov 2010 can't get here fast enough.
The sooner we vote out the Democratic congressional majority that some of us were foolish enough to elect, the faster our national and local economy recovery can begin, just like it did back in 1994 when Newt led the Republicans to victory triggering sustained economic gain that lasted the rest of the decade.
The Obama administration is too busy social engineering on behalf of the poor to actually care that the poor are suffering the worst right now because so many people are out of work.
By the time Jimmy Carter Hussein Obama turns his attention to actually putting people back to work, it will be all over for his administration.
Too bad more of you Democrats didn't turn out for Hillary. We'd be better off today with her in charge than we are with BHO.
Everyone wants to lay the blame in Washington D.C., what about right here in Nevada?
Where is Governor Gibbons? What has he done to help out economy recover, other than putting his hand out, demanding cash from the Feds? We need leadership here at home!
Krases,
What is it about a 13.1 unemployment rate you don't understand? (and that's only the "official" figure). Or the loss of millions of better-paying American jobs to third-world countries? Or falling wages and rising prices? Or the massive destruction of housing the typical worker can afford through "redevelopment" and "gentrification"?
Your attitude of "I've still got mine and anyone who doesn't must be lazy" is the height of ignorance (or blatant prejudice).
This country is now experiencing its highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, while our In view of thatou are sorely uninformed if you believe
imagine how bad it will get when interest rates have to go back up to stem inflation caused by artificial money being pumped into the system, much the same thing that happened in Japan and caused several more recessions during the lost decade.
whatever anyone says this is a depression, it is being hidden by propaganda..
Chinas biggest white goods retailer posted a huge drop in revenue, this is very bad news, it means that spending is slowing in China, expect things to get really bad soon throughout the world!!
Whoops!
This country is now experiencing its highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, while our "New World Economy" is offering fewer jobs at non-living wages. That situation is hardly the result of "laziness".
I'm from D.C. The extreme disconnnect that separates Washington from the desert southwest permits Nevada's problems to metastasize worse than they should. There's virtually nothing being done to help rejuvenate your economy nor Phoenix's. The housing stimulus measures were a disaster.
Worst of all, nearly all sources of major discretionary income have vaporized -- 401Ks and ATM (Adjust That McMansion) are kaput. The various crowds LV catered to, from the college youth to the stroller-pushers to the fanny-pack wearers, have had their fun and must now reap what had been steadily sown for over 35 years.
What a beautiful, tidal shockwave this Great Recession has sent rippling through the world. First, assets plummet in value. Next, folks kicked out of the office, prices and wages frozen. Next, construction comes to a screeching halt, and easy credit evaporates. How the gears wind back up again is anyone's guess.
Vegas will likely never savor such explosive growth as it has recently. If it were to, watching the growth and inevitable downfall occur again will be just as beautiful as it was this go-around.
It's hilarious to me that developers such as MGM and Mr. M think they can still churn a profit from a rapidly disappearing market known loosely as "the middle class". Try reorchestrating the most important asset LV has - gaming. Put to rest the 6/5 blackjack, 90-94% slot holds, 9/6 video poker machines. Now is the worst time imaginable to be skimming the players at every opportunity. They've noticed, trust me. I'm one of them. I'm a semi-pro poker player, but everyone session I take breaks from the action to rest and recover with some video poker. There's really no point in playing a game with house edge these days.
You want to rejuvenate Las Vegas, and reinvigorate its consumer base? Loosen up the games! What've the casinos got to lose at this point? You're all going broke, slowly and surely, anyway.
I live in San Diego. We have at least 10 casinos within a 90 min drive, may within 45 minutes. Las Vegas' disregard for proper gaming management has kept me away nearly for good. I will only venture out occasionally from here on out.
I hate to be "that guy", but the next two years will be particularly gruesome, as the infamous and omenous "second wave", featuring defaulting Option ARMs and Alt-A loans, presents itself.
Wonder when it will all end????
conservacan'ts and republicant's, bush fiddled while america burned. hope your rich buddies bail you out. ya'll have no clue-just hate.
There is certainly an issue and at least Obama and Reid are trying to create something. A new revenue stream with solar power is a good start.
Clearly Tann Summers believes he is securely employed. He probably sells tanning lotion out of the trunk of his car....
GREEN SHOOTS!
13.1 % unemployment rate and Nevada is #1 in the nation in home and business foreclosure rates. Thanks Harry Reid! Dismal news after dismal news and you don't even want to face your constituents. Your performance stinks! So the cherry on the cake, force us into Government-run Health Care. And what about our hero Obama? Now that he's "won" the state? The only thing I see is that he "won" and Nevada LOST! He comes here only to raise more money to crop up his "Yes Man" in congress Harry Reid then he's out of Nevada, until election time of course.
Wonder why LV actually saw it's working population increase last month? Must not be that bgad of a place, people are moving there without jobs.
Honestly this place will be one of the last to recover, it's like the frog in the pond, get affected first by change and last to recover. Once is does it's a nice ride though. Our economy in LV revolves opposite to unemployment, once that goes down we will go up...
Biden the Genius says, it is all about a 3 letter word, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.
Too bad, jobs is priority number 23,348,032 on Obama's list.
He has other things to do then be worried about this job thingy.
Suspect these unemployment numbers don't reflect or include "partial" unemployment associated with employee mandated work hour reductions.
Yep, I spec this here Bush wake'll rival the one Herbert Hoover passed on to FDR. Here you go, gimpy. Good luck.
Boomer11 you are quite possibly the biggest douchebag in a long history of douchebags. Congatulations.
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusabl...
http://www.americanworker.org/
http://www.nationalhomeless.org
Get Rudy Guilliani down here. Las Vegas needs someone who would walk naked down the strip to bring in new business and improve the quality of life laws. If the present powers do not want to give the cops a priority to fine drivers with too tinted windows,give tickets to people who are so effing stupid to use their signals. Bring in a don't use your phone while driving law then the likes of Rudy would.And before all the bleeding hearts start.Enforced rules give freedom to the nice people.
Harry will save us all.
this is the calm before the storm; if the chinese stop throwing money at us, our banks will start to fall one by one. bush, harry, nancy and barack wont be able to save us. pay off your debt and start using cash; you wont spend as much. its time to get off your knees and stand up on your two feet.
i love how month after month people like gqbossing are like "it's not that bad" and then the next month unemployment goes up again.
Our little Sweden friend who whines when we talk about Sweden and says we should not because we do not lives their continues to make uneducated remarks about Las Vegas.
One can find hotel rooms as low as $60 in Vegas. Hooters is a few blocks off the strip and it has rooms for $60 a night. Imperial is on the strip for $55. Hilton about a mile off the strip for $75 and various other places for around $90.
There is very nice resort at Lake Las Vegas one can stay for $100 a night.
There are tons of places where one can get a steak dinner for around $6 and other cheap eats.
BTW, Sweden has the second hightest tax rate in Europe (nearly 50% of people's earnings on average to the government) and people have to wait on average over 3 months to medical procedures.
"BTW, I will ignore your final comment, because its just not true"
I am not the originator of those facts.
I only repeat those facts for they come from newspaper articles or findings by experts.
If you want to them liars then go right ahead.
You have the freedom to be ignorant.
All of you failed to look at the real problem:
Nevada is not endowed with a middle class that have real middle class jobs (don't count the public sector employees in this). It doesn't have any sustaining industries or job categories (like Texas does, as one previous commentator put it). I suspect the real jobless rate is around 30%, and no, you can't count 1099 personnel (self-employed contractors).
Maybe some of my friends missed the news stories about him, but in my mind the answer to much of the vegas problem was Watanabe.
Member him? laid down 'bout a hundred million in a few days?
All they did was drug him.
Now, pot.
Regulate it a little more transparently. Tax it and let it work for the common good. They'll come. They'll play, and tip, gawk, spend, eat, you got it.
And shazam, Vegas will be the destination it was before sin caught up with country.
It's time to up the ante and go green.
We won't be able to build prisons fast enough and have to resort to more drastic measures if you do something as stupid as that.
Oh the prisons. Sorry I wasn't quick enough to address that bonanza.
Once we free all the pot prisoners and put the staff on fewer hours with almost the same pay, they'll be free to cultivate their favorite plants in a free country beside their tomatoes.
And all that left-over prison space becomes a great big coffee shop/pot-smoking den/gambling casino/whore house, totally Nevada-style.
Sending money to our local service provider by selling sin.
Smoking pot is a misdemeanor - so the pot smokers are not crowding the prison system. distribution with an intent to sell is a felony, THOSE are the ones sitting in prison and aren't going anywhere anytime soon since their "product" includes more than just pot. Nevadas got enough of murderers, rapists, child rapists, gang bangers and all are'nt going anywhere, the prisons will stay full.
I guess your saying that making pot legal will help unemployment/
Yep, it's jobs. When they come back here to sin some more, we thrive. Just chummin' for chumps. We tried gambling, sex, booze, world-class shows, gluttony and everything else.
I wouldn't go blaming weed for the sins of the world. Especially now when we obviously need to recharge our drawing power because it's all we got.
What's so funny is all this free energy and not a political will to advantage our people with its proven economic returns.
We're fading fast, economically; my suggestion may be seen as a continuance in the gradual decriminalization of weed while it's really more of a practical response to our growing need. We do need jobs and a stronger tax base. It wouldn't be Nevada if nobody suggested selling sin.
You won the prisons.
But please don't miss my point about Watanabe...
All I am saying is the stoned gambler will part with his cash faster and still have a good time.
All this talk about other stuff is fluff.
Please picture your Vegas visitor leaving his money behind and going home poor and happy about his great time.
This is economics, not ethics. If it were ethics, it wouldn't be LV.
IT'S ALL OBAMAS FAULT
All I am saying is the stoned gambler will part with his cash faster and still have a good time.
very true statement. Gambling and booze don't mix. The drunker you get, the more you gamble with the hpoe that the big win is around the corner or after the next 3 scotches..
Hay all of you Nevadans, I invite you to step acorss the border in California and see for yourself: It's all Arnold's fault. Maybe a trip tp Michigan where you'll her that Jenny is to blame. Terrible politicians certainly deserve all the blame we throw at them, but I never got a call from either party demanding me to re-fi or go on a credit card spree. Gotta love Obama's answer, Close GM and Chrysler plants and dealers, Cash for clunkers so we can trade in our old guzzlers for a foreign car. The unions should stop supporting his party over that. Bush was certainly not great, But Obama isn't helping the cause of the working folks. My job went away this year. Now I do contract work for several competitors of my former employer. Life is good, despite the attempts by politicians to "save" us.
Det. Munch,
You and I agree on something big.
Get 'em loaded, and they leave their dough. Just exactly where, they don't even know. Then they come back fo' mo'.
Las Vegas Limerick
Get 'em loaded, and they leave their dough-
Just where they don't even know.
They go home for a spell,
Save some cash, then, hell-
They come back to Vegas fo' mo'!
hey i think there is a small space between flamingos front door and margaritaville for another hand biller or two-i just can"t get enough escort info or maybe someone can start up a company that picks up all that trash
alienbaby, you are so right. you decline a card from a peddler, and one two feet away shoves the same one in front of you. This is repeated through a gauntlet that runs by dozens of these LOSERS! Do they go to school to learn the snapping motion? And as you mentioned, literally thousands of the cards cover the sidewalk. I guess they can't get a coveted telemarketing job.
Mormonssuck,
You are correct; this place is an adult playground not Disney Land.
Read the story about night clubs and my comments below, and then think, is a girl showing her boobs such a major issue when you face 13% unemployment? Think before you vote!!!
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/aug...
Get a life; Gaming Control Board, County's Business License Department and County Commissioners. This place was designed for adults, leave the clubs alone. If you want to govern like you live in Mayberry move there. If someone does not like "topless and lewd activity" they can go elsewhere like Disney Land!! Leave our adult playground alone or your city will continue to die! To all the citizens that voted these clowns in, look at your TIPS and think next time before you vote.
The smoker you drink, the player you get.
Joe Walsh
Yeah I kinda agree with some points made about this being an adult city. I support the establishment of a very well regulated and very well taxed red light district. A green light district could even be built for marijuana-serving coffee shops and greenhouses.
However, it doesn't mean that we need to throw out diversification by opening up to families. All We need is to pick an area of the city and say "this is going to be the family friendly area" and anchor it with a Disney Land (you know, that one that will probably never be built). Establish a buffer zone between that and the adult themed areas of downtown (by maybe placing it in the southwest corner of the valley) and we have a deal.
Although I wouldn't exactly say that expanding tourism would be diversifying Las Vegas's economy. We could build a industrial area for solar cell construction or maybe appeal to all those electric car start-up companies and see if a few will move here. Expanding UNLV and increasing its research capacity could attract scientists and a larger more profitable college town. None of these ideas are full proof but then again none ever are.
Makin' cars takes gobs a water. So does the solar cell production. We could use 'em, but we can't afford the water to make 'em.
Amsterdam does a pretty good job of being a destination for both families and dope-smokin', hooker-humpin' tourists as well. They stick the vices in Central Amsterdam and patrol it sorta. Then they proudly strut cops around all the busy intersections; they call it a big presence.
Seems to work. Lotsa hookers; lotsa dopers. Gobs of trade.
bitch, bitch, bitch
blame the politicians
look in the mirror or at your neighbor , those who were living above their means
those like the banks living and dying on credit, take some self responsibility
it all started when gas prices rose and disposable income shrunk
many warned of Bush and Cheney's ties to big oil but they were the rights Messiahs
because of oil prices rose across the board affecting everything form food prices to airfare
I wish the commentators blaming politicians would have as much outrage towards the oil companies and the contractors and commisioners that approved of the overbuilding of Nevada
where are the smart leaders hat plan to save during prosperous times for the bad times, why spend, spend, spend
what happened to saving and planning for the difficult times
all the whining and moaning --are we surrounded by 5 year olds? can we try to have a real discussion that proposes solutions?