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Monday, Jan. 26, 2009 | 10:43 a.m.
The state's jobless rate increased to 9.1 percent in December, a full percentage point rise from the 8.1 percent rate in November, the Nevada Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Department said.
Holiday hiring was weak in Nevada, with retail payrolls increasing by 3,200, or 2.3 percent.
By comparison, from 1997 to 2007, holiday hiring averaged 5,800 employees, or 4.7 percent
The last time the unemployment rate was this high was in October 1983 when the rate was 9.0 percent and the country was recovering from a recession.
In the week of Jan. 17, about 78,000 people collected unemployment benefits.
“Nevada’s economic conditions took a turn for the worse in the final months of 2008, and the deterioration was particularly evident in December,” Bill Anderson, chief economist for the state's employment department, said in a statement. “All told, roughly 128,000 Nevadans found themselves looking for work in December."
There were 36,000 initial unemployment claims made in December, a 113.5 percent year-over-year increase, he said.
For the past 10 months, employment has been declining when compared with the same month the year before, Anderson said.
This March could mark the first time in 26 years that jobs declined on an annual basis, he said.
actually lower than I expected...
We need to radically increase state taxes to fix this unemployment problem.
No, what we need to "radically increase" is the number of illegals that we kick out of Nevada.
Think of the millions we Nevadans have to spend, thanks, in part, to local law enforcement-from the Attorney General to the Sherrifs Office-that either doesn't lift a finger, or doesn't do nearly as much as it could to protect this state from the economic devastation brought on by these eager-to-assimilate (ha!) illegals, and their famously high-achieving, second generation anchor babies.
But by all means, let's focus on taxing the daylight out of real Nevadans who actually put money back into the economy with the money they are allowed to keep, as opposed to those illegals who take jobs from real Americans, for slave wages that only some impoverished, illiterate, third worlder would appreciate, so they can continue to send their money back to the country of their true loyalty,
which, as we all know, and as the financial statistics bear out, most of them do.
Frankly, I hope the unemplyment rate goes to 30%, if that would mean the exodus of every illegal
from Nevada, along with all those anchor babies that they crapped out on our dime.
Based on this article out of australia, things won't be improving anytime soon:
http://business.smh.com.au/business/pack...
Kerry Packer passed away before he could see his son getting in trouble. Their casinos in Australia are beautiful and profitable, but he may be biting off more than he wants to chew here.
Jfnance32, you have all of the answers; why don't you run for office to fix what's wrong?
Unemployment problem -------->solution: Higher taxes.
It always works.
If businesses have less money to spend then they always hire more people. It is 101 Buckley economics.
It works like a charm.
We need higher taxes to create more jobs.
jfnance32, then why are business leaders throughout Las Vegas calling for tax increases?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan...
Seems your own party has left you behind.
I think they realized that the Democrats what to slam the state with high taxes and put more private employees out of work.
So they are demanding reductions to the raping of the state taxpayers by the state and county unionized workforces.
I am glad to hear you point out that business leaders are making a stand about those platinum deals that state and county workers are getting.
The state business leaders are saying if Democrats want to put more private people out of work then the Democrats must agree to reductions in platinum benefits for government workers and platinum contracts for government workers.
LOL! "raping" taxpayers?
Nevada taxpayers pay the 2nd lowest local-state tax burden in the United States, 6.6%. The only state that pays a lower percentage is Alaska.
Our state sales tax is higher than the local-state tax burden.
Nevada tax burden is 19th in the nation based on total taxes per capita.
The state worker salaries are 17th in the nation and county workers are in the ranked 2nd in the nation.
And according to a recent study, many Nevada government workers are paid more than their similar private workers.
Most of Nevada government workers if hired at 25 can retire at 55 with 70% of their salary and get private health insurance subidizes. Most Nevada government workers get more paid days off than private employees. Most government workers will get to cash out all the sick pay that did not take for all those years. It is very hard for a Nevada government to get fired.
Private employees are getting laid-off left and right. Many have experienced wage and benefit cuts.
The Democrats want to make the government worker this super protected class that has all these platinum benefits.
I am glad that business leaders are demanding some changes if the Democrats are insisting that more private employees suffer more layoffs and wage and benefits cuts.
Look, it's really easy to armchair quarterback from your computer. I have always said that you are part of the problem or part of the solution. What do you say Nance, problem or solution?
If you will run for an office, I would like to be your campaign manager. I'm sure that you will be elected and fix all of the city, county, state and country's problems.
What changes would you like to start with? Actions speak louder than words, my friend.
LOL, per capita tax burden? That's a meaningless statistic. Nevadans earn more than average, of course their per-capita payment will be be higher.
Nevadans pay the second smallest percentage of their income to taxes in the United States. The tax burden as percentage of income is tiny, especially compared to many other states.
As for your examples, my father was able to cash out all of his sick leave and retired at the age of 59, after 40 years of service with a private engineering firm... AND he had a matching 401k.
Yeah, government workers are soooo unlike private workers.
Your father was lucky. Good for him.
Of course, what he did is not the rule but the exception for private employees.
Your statistic is meaningless.
On a per person basis, Nevadans are the 19th highest taxed citizens in the country.
Buckley and the Dems want more private citizens to lose their jobs so to protect the special government worker class.
That is correct, they earn more, so they pay more. Unfortunately, if they moved to 48 other states, they would pay a larger percentage of their income toward taxes. I guess you think paying 10 or 12% of your income to taxes is a great thing.
I guess you don't care about what percentage of your income goes to taxes, then? Instead of 6.6, how about 8.6? Or 11.6?
LOL, that would be fine by you, right?
My father was no exception, there are plenty of companies interested in attracting a capable, well-educated workforce, and they offer benefits to match. I guess you want government workers to be uneducated and poverty-stricken.
Nance loves using misleading statistics.
Who cares about the per-capita payment of taxes?
Nevada has one of the lowest effective tax rates in the nation. 6.6%. Combine that with a higher per-capita income and of course you have a higher per-capita tax payment.
The measure of taxation is the tax rate.
That's a real boneheaded idea Vegas2009. So for how long will we not fund barebones government agencies. How long do you want to live in this town without police, or ambulances, or firefighters? How long can our children go without school? How long can our various pieces of infrastructure last without monitoring and upkeep? How long will McCarran last without the FAA there to run things? I can keep going. Or are you suggesting that all those workers work pro bono, which is ridiculous. Also what about basics needed to keep going? Are the cops just supposed to throw rocks at criminals after their guns run out of bullets? Are the criminals in jail supposed to just starve? Are our fighting men and women overseas supposed to fight and die for us for free and with no funding for armor, bullets, food, and water?
Two things are necessary and guaranteed in this world, death and taxes.
Nevada is taxed just about the lowest in income, but remember the money has to come from somewhere, increased food costs, increased fuel costs etc. The man will always get his due.
"Nevada tax burden is 19th in the nation based on total taxes per capita."
Nevada estimate of total state and local per capita taxes paid: $3245.
That ranks us 38th in the nation.
Furthermore, if you break it down between taxes paid to their own state, and taxes paid to other states, Nevada taxpayers are burdened to pay $1952 to their own state.
There are only six other states that pay less to their own state, ranking Nevada as #44.
Furthermore, we have the sixth highest per capita income in the United States, according to the Tax Foundation.
Such a high per capita income naturally means that the per capita taxes paid would be higher, but to characterize Nevada's tax burden as high is a joke.
If you make $100k in Nevada, you get to keep $94,400.
If you moved to Maine, you would only get to keep $90,000.
If you moved to New Jersey? $88,200
48 states have higher tax rates than Nevada. The only state you would be better off living in, tax wise? Alaska.
If you use Nance's measure, of per capita taxes paid, there are 11 states where you could move to.
You would keep less of your money in 10 out of the 11. (Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee, Montana, Alabama, South Carolina, New Mexico, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Mississippi.)
redferret,
LasVegas2009 has a mild point.
Add this.
750 billion TARP Bail Out
875 billion proposed bail out
30 billion Auto bail out
125 billion AIG, Lehman Bros, etc. bail out
I'm sure I'm forgetting some and misquoted others but you get the idea.
Roughly 1.7 trillion dollars of bailouts. This adds roughly 10% or so to the US debt!
To look at it another way, the US population is roughly 305.5 million people (including kids and infants). Divide this into the total number of bailouts and you get $5,564 per person in the US. I have a family of 6. My familes share of the bailout funds is over $33,000.
My point is that the gov't could have fixed all the banking loop holes that caused this mess, told the banks to go shove it and fix the problems THEY made and have given the taxpayers a tax holiday for year so we all have more disposalbe income to SPEND and keep the economy going.
According to the US government, Nevada is ranked 19th in the nation for state taxes per capita.
Just a FYI, there are zero Nevadans that pay a state "tax rate" based on income.
What baffles me about Nevada having a 9% unemployment is the fact that Nevada also ranks near the bottom in student-to-teacher ratio, and nurse-to-patient ratio. How can there be such high unemployment when this State clearly has needs in those fields?
"According to the US government, Nevada is ranked 19th in the nation for state taxes per capita."
Oh, I see, just repeat something that didn't work before? Is that an argument style? Repeat over and over until someone believes you?
Census data, which I believe is where you are getting your particular talking point, does not take into affect local taxes, such as property taxes and sales taxes. It's funny that you say it's "state taxes" but your source leaves out alot of those taxes you are trying to account and compare.
Tax Foundation includes state and local taxes.
"Just a FYI, there are zero Nevadans that pay a state "tax rate" based on income."
Kind of a sad attempt at a straw man argument there. You choose to characterize taxes as "per capita," even though that's an irrelevant measure of taxation. If a state had fewer residents who made a higher average wage, per capita would reflect high taxation, even though the prevailing tax rate was low.
See, that's the same tired and transparent scheme that NPRI has tried to repeat over and over.
Furthermore, a basic tax rate can most defninitely be determined by taking the "state taxes per capita" statistic that you love so much and comparing that to the per capita average income. Viola, the prevailing tax rate.
It also explains why per capita taxes in some states are low: they have blisteringly high tax rates, but the citizens don't earn much, thus the per capita is low.
But repeating yourself? Not a response to all that context I gave. Now that I've flushed out even more data and shown how your statistic is meaningless in comparing states, I would think it would be prudent of you to defend it, not just repeat it.
I have agreed with Narcissas' remedy for quite some time now, send the illegal aliens packing back to their homeland. Putting our Nevadans back to work would mean less citizens on unemployment. It means less unemployment compensation paid out. 78,000 times $200 = $1.56 million dollars per week. $6.24 million per month. I call upon our trusted leaders of Nevada to use e verify to flush out these foreigners and send them back to their countries and put our citizens back to work now.
"...send the illegal aliens packing back to their homeland."
Actually that might not work as well as you think. Illegals have taxes taken from their checks, but do not collect refunds. This has a very positive affect, in that those funds then remain in the public coffers. If you send them home, then will remove that source of public funds.
To say nothing of the costs of oranges, lettuce, and tuck-roll interior work.
Sorry. Not everything is as black and white as it seems.
There are also a whole lot of illegals who buy a beat up truck and a lawnmower and go into their own 'landscaping' business - same with housekeepers - car and a vacumn cleaner - and pool cleaners - truck and a pool net etc etc. Now THESE illegals pay NOTHING to the state and don't spend much of the money they make here at all - it all goes back to Mexico - so until AMERICANS stop giving these people jobs (just to save a few bucks) this will continue - As for me I'll pay a legal American citizen twice the price rather than look for cut rate work (and cut rate results) just to save a few bucks. Helping put Americans back to work is more important to me than saving a few bucks here and there - heck, I guess that's why I'll never be rich - but I sleep very well at night all the same. And the next time you're in a hurry and tempted to use the 'self-check-out' lanes in a store (such as Walmart Neighborhood Grocery) think of the cashiers who are put out of work and think of the money the company saves by having you be a free cashier and bag-boy - and think of the fact that they don't pass any of the savings on to you - or did I miss the sign that says "check out and bag your own groceries and save 10%" ?
"...until AMERICANS stop giving these people jobs (just to save a few bucks) this will continue..."
Sorry, I just can't see how this is different than sending the money to China via Walmart, a company whose predatory practices hurt locals businesses to a much greater extent than illegals mowing lawns. Frankly, I would rather send my money to Mexico.
Jfnance32, you make a few assumptions that I know to be false like cashing out sick leave. A state employee can only cash out earned annual leave. Sick leave is a use or lose item. Meaning what ever sick leave you have at the time of retirement or or resignation goes back to the state. Also you use words like "according to a recent study". What recent study? Usually I like to hear what you have to say but when people start spouting unsubstanciated facts and figures I get a little ticked. This is not a personal attack on you because a lot of people here do this to bolster their point of view. Don't make up facts, because they just aren't factual.
TAXES=JOBS: If you don't tax, you can't pay workers to fix things like roads and highways. If you give tax cuts, where does the money come from?
HOUSING: Quite a few of the problems with this economy game from excessive this or excessive that. The housing market (to me) is the main cause of alot of todays problems. They built and built and built and built without ever once thinking, heh, this might come back to haunt us. During this building spree, people in existing homes were shafted because they couldn't compete. Why would a buyer pay for a used home, when they could pay the same for a brand new one (me being one of those buyers)? And all those jobs created to buy those homes are gone now because hardly any homes need to be built. And people that got stuck in homes they need to sell now because of job loss or not enough money to keep them have to sell at a third less than what they bought it at.
CREDIT CARD DEBT: A lot of the jobs lost are because the consumer doesn't have the money. And any money they do have is for bills and debt they rang up on Credit Cards. And the Credit Card companies are jacking up rates so high (one of mine is 27.99%) that to me it's unAmerican. I think the bailout to the banks should come with a restriction on how high credit card rates can go in the down period. Say 9.99% MAX!!!!
If you increase taxes in the right areas you can create jobs and pay teachers better.
If you regulate how many houses can be built per buyer estimate we won't end up in this crisis again in the future.
If you restrict credit card rate, people will have more money to buy things and stimulate the economy more than any 1 shot rebate check.
The State of Nevada deserves this situation. We can thank people like Harry Reid and Jim Gibbons. There is no real leadership in the State -- these guys are pawns of the gaming industry. An industry which thrived on a under educated, low paid population base. Reid and Gibbons have done nothing to diversify the economy. If people take the time to understand Yucca Mountain, for example, this is a high tech, safe, industry. The technolgy opportunities associated with it our almost endless. Just a few years ago the project employed over 2,700 scientist and engineers -- these are jobs paying well over 100k per year. Senator Reid reduced the number to 1,700 last year by cutting the budget and proposes to make it zero next year. As far as I know this is the only large scale employer of people with PhDs outside of the university.
If these people lose their jobs they will leave Nevada immediately. The project leases hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space from the Hughes Corp and virtually all the professionals own homes in Summerlin. Has anyone consdered how an additional thousand homes, put on the market virtually overnight, will impact real estate values in Summerlin???
I'm sure someone will respond with a factually untrue, fearmongering statement about the safety of Yucca and nuclear technology. I will be happy to respond with a technically accurate, verifiable response.
bag, bring forth the response, not for my benefit, as I support Yucca one-hundred percent but for the gas bags that think the addition of Yucca will put the third orbit of gilblax out of allignment or some other bullcrap theory.
I am tired of Harry and anybody else who thinks Yucca is unsafe.
When people talk about "screw Nevada" here's the deal. If we keep waiting for the government to force it down our throats we will get screwed, but if we jump on this as a revenue producer (which it is) we can set our terms and fees for disposal.
Based on what Silver State Disposal gets for hauling my non-nuclear trash to a pit in the desert I am sure we could make a killing on the radio-active sort.
I know, I know, this makes too much sense.
Getalife: I just can't figure out where all of this opposition to yucca is at??? Sure if you ask a poll question -- do you want a nuclear waste dump in your backyard? a majority of the people will respond no. But, I talk to a lot of people and just don't see the opposition as being very intense at all. Sure Reid uses the issue to try and hide the fact that he has accomplished very little and the media repeats the same silly nonsense over and over. But, when I talk to most Nevadans they all say, "I don't understand what the big deal is why aren't we taking advantage of the research and technology ops etc..."
I have to run, but I intend to play my little role in helping have a responsible and technically accurate discussion of the issues. BAG
bag, thanks for being on board the sane train. Most folks around here prefer the crazy train.
johnevegas, you hit the nail on the head. The government knows who's illegal because their names and socials don't match. Illegals can't collect social security, they can't collect unemployment insurance, etc. There are piles of money collecting weekly that have no place to go. Our government knows this. Where does this money go? Is this one reason why our government is so lax on illegals?
Johnvegas, rest assured that I don't shop at Walmart and I get a real kick out of checking the tags that say "Made in..." on every article of clothing I buy - you can only imagine my thrill at finding something that actually says "Made in America"....my thrill is so few and far between - I would gladly pay a few bucks more for American made products - only problem is these products are getting harder and harder to find.
The piles of money being collected that the 'poor' illegals pay in and can't get back - well - maybe some of that money should be used to help the victims of identity theft - and the rest of the money - well, that just covers all the taxes the 'self-employed' illegals DON'T pay into the government in the form of withholding taxes. I am totally against hiring ANYONE that sneaks into this country illegally and then uses either someone else's ID (ID Theft) or just creates a fake ID in order to gain employment or even a Drivers license. I am also totally against Walmart and the monopoly they are making of themselves (without any resistance from local or federal government apparently). Even Bill Gates (according to the government) got to be 'too big for his britches' with his Windows product (Monopoly?) There must be some real major contributions paid out by Walmart to the politicians that no one seems willing to stop the madness where Walmart is concerned. I hire american born and bred people to cut my grass and paint my house - and when I bought carpeting I told Carpets-n-more NOT to send me anyone but a white or black AMERICAN to do the install - guess what they sent - A white guy and a black guy - so if we speak up it can make a difference.
2009,
I'll skip the fine points and just say that you must be drunk thinking that slashing funding at those levels will help the situation. Either that or you are seriously the most shortsided and selfish person on earth. Slashing government funding at that rate would put police, fire, emergency in general, the armed forces, etc in a crippling bind.
Your moronic and neanderthalic idea would literally mean that the citizens of this town should just buy guns and guard themselves until the recession is over. Have you considered what if this thing lasts like the Great Depression?
Ooops, we're no longer funding basic government programs for a decade. Smooth.
Why don't you go back to Home Depot, and try and not open your mouth or use a keyboard.