Nevada jobless rate under 6 percent for first time since 2008

Nevada’s unemployment rate reached a key threshold in February for the first time in eight years.

The state’s jobless rate dipped below 6 percent in the month, breaching a barrier it hadn’t punctured since April 2008.

Unemployment fell to 5.9 percent in February, the Nevada Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Department reported Wednesday.

Numbers from the employment department suggested the improvement came from job growth rather than a shrinking labor force.

The state’s job base grew by 1,700 positions from January to February, said Bill Anderson, chief economist for the employment department. Nevada’s employers added 28,700 positions year over year, for an annual job-formation rate of 2.3 percent. The national job-creation rate averaged 1.9 percent.

It was the 62nd straight month of annual job growth for Nevada.

The trade, transportation and utilities category, which includes retail, gained the most jobs in the first two months of 2016, with 9,900 jobs, or 4.2 percent more positions than the same period in 2015.

As it has for more than a year, construction led the way in growth pace. The industry grew 8.3 percent year over year in February, for an additional 5,400 jobs.

Hiring in leisure and hospitality — the biggest employment sector, with 26.5 percent of jobs — was flat in January and February.

On the labor supply side, the state’s work force expanded 1.1 percent, or 15,000 people, year to year in February for a total of 1.43 million workers.

Despite the bigger labor pool, the number of Nevadans out of work and looking for a job fell 14.7 percent year to year, to 85,000 in February. At its recession-era peak, Nevada had nearly 200,000 unemployed residents.

Nevada’s unemployment continued to outpace the U.S. rate, which was 4.9 percent in February.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics hadn’t updated its figures at press time, but Nevada ranked No. 5 in the nation for joblessness in January, tied with Alabama and behind Mississippi (6.7 percent), Alaska (6.6 percent), New Mexico (6.5 percent) and West Virginia and Illinois (tied at 6.3 percent).

The employment department is scheduled to release local unemployment figures next week.

If you include discouraged workers who have stopped looking for a job and underemployed part-timers who would rather have full-time jobs, Nevada’s unemployment rate averaged 13.9 percent in 2015, compared with a national average of 10.4 percent.

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