Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson.

The statewide unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent in February compared with 4.5 percent in January as about 13,000 jobs were added to Nevada's economy, the director of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said Tuesday.

The postholiday downturn and winter vacation for educators contributed to January's rate being higher than previous months, department Director Terry Johnson said.

Las Vegas matched the state's unemployment rate at 4.3 percent, while Reno-Sparks was 4.7 percent, Carson City was 5.7 percent and Elko was 4 percent.

Total employment in Clark County grew 3.6 percent from a year ago to 933,300 jobs, the department reported.

Johnson said it's unreasonable to think Las Vegas could sustain annual employment growth of near 5 percent and that the challenge in the face of massive construction projects on the Strip is going to be finding workers to fill positions at places such as MGM Mirage's CityCenter and Boyd Gaming's Echelon.

"It's really going to be an issue of quality when you look at the higher skills, the plumbers and electricians and accountants and auditors," Johnson said. "We're going to have huge gaps both in terms of skills and the number of workers needed to replace the retiring baby boomers."

About 6,800 jobs were added in government, Johnson said. Another 3,900 jobs were added in private service industries, including jobs related to transportation, warehousing, finance, tourism and business services.

Retail employment was reduced by 400 jobs in February as temporary holiday help was lost.

Johnson said Las Vegas is in between booms. Although there's some leveling off in construction, Johnson said, the city is still in good shape compared with other parts of the nation, especially the Rust Belt.

The construction industry accounted for 2,200 jobs in February's employment increase, but the industry employed 1,100 fewer workers than in February 2006, he said.

"Unemployment insurance claims are coming in disproportionately from the construction industry," Johnson said. "You'll see the decline in new housing starts is contributing to that. It's part of the economic ebb and flow that comes with the market."

He noted that Nevada is still below the national unemployment rate of 4.5 percent and California's 4.8 percent rate.

Johnson said there's good news in the manufacturing sector of Nevada's economy. Employment in manufacturing increased by 5.3 percent in Nevada over the past 12 months, generating 2,600 new jobs. Nationwide, nearly 100,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the same period, accounting for a 0.7 percent decline in that sector of employment.

The department will release statistics in April that will examine employment figures for the first quarter that followed the ban on smoking and the increase in minimum wage.