Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Movers looking for work increasing state’s jobless rate

Labor Department figures show layoffs aren’t the only reason for unemployment spike

CityCenter

Tiffany Brown / File photo

Romeo Cornista, left, talks with CityCenter career adviser Marcus Green while waiting for his turn at a CityCenter job center last month.

Nevada’s unemployment rate has soared not just because of layoffs, but because job seekers apparently have continued to move to the state.

That bit of information was found in statistics issued by the U.S. Labor Department, which reported today that the national unemployment rate jumped from 7.2 percent in December to a 16-year high of 7.6 percent in January.

Companies last month cut 598,000 jobs, the worst performance by the nation’s labor market since December 1974.

Led by declines in the construction industry, Nevada’s unemployment rate soared to 9.1 percent in December.

Labor Department statistics show that in Nevada, this was driven only partly by job losses. In the Las Vegas area, for instance, the number of people receiving paychecks in December totaled 917,400, down 15,500 or 1.7 percent from December 2007.

The other contributing factor was that the number of available workers in December in the Las Vegas market was 1.019 million, up from 971,000 in December 2007, when the national recession began.

This means more people were competing for fewer available jobs in Southern Nevada.

Bill Anderson, chief economist for the Nevada Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation, today said the growth of the workforce in 2008 reflected the continuation of a longtime trend in Nevada.

"Over the long-term the Nevada labor force has been increasing as we have drawn residents from elsewhere in the country and internationally in search of better economic opportunities,’’ he said. "Nevada led the nation in population growth for roughly two decades running until 2008.’’

"It’s a continuation of that long term trend. The state continues to grow’’ -- but more slowly, he said.

But as the word gets out around the country that jobs are scarce in Nevada, Anderson expects fewer people to move here in search of work.

"I think we’re seeing our population growth decline considerably,’’ he said.

Besides in-migration, the workforce in Nevada likely grew in 2008 for a couple of other reasons: Students graduating from school and looking for work; and previous stay-at-home spouses entering the workforce so families could make ends meet as other family members were losing their jobs or working fewer hours.

For companies to create jobs all these unemployed Nevadans can fill, three things must be addressed, Anderson said.

The housing sector needs to turn around, credit needs to start flowing to get nonresidential construction moving and consumer confidence must improve so consumers start spending again, he said.

With Nevada losing 19,400 construction jobs between December 2007 and December 2008 -- more jobs lost than in any other sector, Anderson said: "Obviously, for a turnaround to begin, we have to see a fundamental improvement in the construction sector.’’

Steve Green can be reached at 990-7714 or [email protected].

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