Nevada jobless rate tumbles to six-year low

The last time unemployment fell this low in Nevada, Encore on the Strip hadn’t opened.

Danny Gans still headlined a show on the Strip.

And Downtown Summerlin was a lone, steel-framed office building near the 215 Beltway and Charleston Boulevard.

When state joblessness dropped to a seasonally adjusted 6.9 percent in November, it was the first time the rate slipped below 7 percent since June 2008, the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said Friday.

Unemployment was down from 7.1 percent in October, and 9.1 percent in November 2013.

The Las Vegas Valley’s November rate was 7.1 percent. That was up from 6.8 percent in October, but local rates are not seasonally adjusted and can be more volatile than statewide levels. Local unemployment in November 2013 was 9 percent.

Friday’s numbers added to nearly a year’s worth of improvements in state and local labor markets.

Nevada ranked No. 2 in the nation for year-over-year job growth from January to November, behind only North Dakota, said Bill Anderson, the employment department’s chief economist. The state’s average job-formation rate in the period was 3.4 percent, compared with slightly less than 2 percent nationally. November was also the first time since early 2008 that Nevada fell outside the top five for joblessness. And its 2.2 percentage-point unemployment decline was the third-biggest year-to-year drop in the nation.

“All indications suggest that the state and metro areas are showing positive signs of recovery,” Anderson said.

Added Brian Gordon, a principal in local research firm Applied Analysis: “The fact that we’re continuing to see improvements is a welcome sign given the devastation the market experienced during the economic downturn. The gains have been fairly respectable, and we’re closing the gap as it relates to what’s happening across the country. While Las Vegas had arguably the hardest-hit economy in the country, we’ve made great strides over the last couple of years. While there’s still some work to be done, the improvements are welcome.”

Virtually all of the state’s 10 big jobs sectors gained ground in November, with the employment base growing by 27,100 positions compared with the same month a year ago. Leading the way were professional and business services and construction.

Professional and business services, including administrative and support staffing, accounting firms, engineering studios and law firms, posted the best growth, surging 7.5 percent, or 11,300 positions.

Growth in administrative and support staffing in particular reflects broad-based improvements in the rest of the economy, Gordon said.

“Businesses are bringing back the employees that so many of them have done without for so long, as they ran much leaner on the administrative side,” he said. “They now feel much more comfortable bringing on those types of employees. While they’re not necessarily the highest-paying positions, they’re important to a number of businesses and a number of families.”

Construction ranked No. 2 for growth, expanding 5.3 percent, or 3,100 jobs.

Only mining retreated, shedding 3.3 percent, or 500 positions.

Still, the state’s jobless rate continued to outpace the national rate, which was 5.8 percent in November.

And it will likely take a year or more for the state to reach a par with national unemployment, Gordon said.

That’s because Nevada still has roughly 84,000 fewer construction jobs today than it did at its 2006 peak of 148,000, and many of those jobs are gone permanently. The state will have to make up the numbers via growth in other industries.

Also, if you include discouraged workers who have stopped seeking jobs and underemployed part-timers who would rather have full-time work, Nevada’s unemployment rate averaged 15.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013 through the third quarter of 2014.

State officials also should keep an eye on the global economy, especially as any worldwide downturn could affect the international tourism that has bolstered visitor growth here in recent years, Gordon said. Any issues overseas could ultimately be offset by falling gasoline prices and a stabilizing housing market here, though, he added.

“There are some positives and negatives out there, but to this point, the positives appear to be outweighing the negatives,” he said.

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