New analysis for 2011 bumps up jobless numbers in Nevada

Revised estimates show Nevada's unemployment rate was higher in 2011 than thought.

The jobless rate averaged 13.5 percent in 2011, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

Early calculations had put the state's jobless rate at an average of 13 percent.

The record average jobless rate in Nevada was 13.7 percent in 2010, with a record of 14 percent in October 2010.

Bill Anderson, chief economist for the state employment department, said the latest figures also showed that the Silver State's labor force didn't shrink as much as estimated.

"Despite a very tight job market, Nevadans continued to actively search for work within the state," Anderson said in a statement.

Job gains were also better than estimated, Anderson said. Job formation for 2011 was initially pegged at 2,100 positions, then revised to 7,800 jobs.

Despite the improvements, 2011's gains were much less pronounced than pre-recession job growth, and the state is still down about 170,000 jobs from peak employment in 2007.

Anderson said the state's employment market bottomed out in 2010 and began improving noticeably in late 2011, when the jobless rate fell for the first time since 2006.

"Taken as a whole, trends associated with these new estimates of the health of Nevada's labor market are quite similar to those that we have been reporting over the past year," Anderson said.