Nevada jobless rate static amid slower job growth, wider labor pool

Slower job growth and a bigger labor pool left Nevada’s unemployment rate unchanged in March.

The jobless rate stalled at 7.1 percent from February to March, the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reported Wednesday.

Payrolls grew 34,100 jobs year over year, for a job-formation rate of 2.8 percent.

Construction grew by the largest percentage, gaining 6.3 percent, or 3,900 jobs. Leisure and hospitality added 11,800 jobs, for growth of 3.5 percent.

The year-to-year job growth helped push down unemployment from 8.2 percent in March 2014.

But the expansion rate ran below average numbers from August to January, when the state added more than 40,000 jobs year to year for six straight months. Growth rates ranged from 3.4 percent to more than 4 percent.

In all, the state added nearly 100,000 private-sector jobs from 2011 to 2014, halving the 14 percent jobless rate Nevada saw in the recession.

But unemployment here remains “stubbornly high,” said Bill Anderson, chief economist of the employment department.

The national jobless rate was 5.5 percent in March. The Bureau of Labor Statistics hadn’t released March rankings Wednesday, but Nevada ranked No. 1 for joblessness in February.

The high jobless rate is due at least in part to a growing labor force, Anderson said.

The state’s work force grew by 16,700 people, or 1.2 percent, to nearly 1.41 million people in March.

“This suggests that, as employment prospects have improved, Nevadans have entered the labor market, preventing a more pronounced decline in the jobless rate,” Anderson said.

The employment department also noted that Nevada personal income, which includes wages, transfer receipts, and dividends, interest and rents, reached $114.3 billion in the third quarter. That’s up 17.2 percent from a recession-era low of $97.6 billion in 2010, and up 5.6 percent from a boom-era high of $108.3 billion in 2007.

The employment department will release local jobless rates next week.

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find @J_Robison1 on Twitter.