Nevada retail employment down 15,200 during recession

Nevada lost 8,800 retail jobs in 2009 and total retail employment is down 15,200 jobs since the start of the recession two years ago, the Retail Association of Nevada reported Thursday.

The retail industry employed 132,200 people as of December, compared with 141,000 in the same month of the previous year, a report compiled by Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas-based business advisory firm, shows.

Consumer confidence, a key indicator for spending, increased to 53.6 in December from 38.6 a year earlier, but is down 37 points from 90.6 in December 2007 when the recession began.

People can't shop if they don't have a job. The economic analysis showed the unemployment rate rising to 13 percent in December from 8.4 percent in December 2008. There are 176,000 individuals actively searching for work today compared with 121,300 one year ago.

Declines in statewide personal income are equally discouraging. Nevadans have cumulatively lost $25.4 billion in income since the start of the recession, or $9,800 per capita if allocating that loss over the state's 2.6 million residents.

Eight of 14 economic indicators in the Retail Association of Nevada report were negative, or in the red, in the one-year comparison and 10 indicators were in the red from two years ago.

"I wish there were more positives," said Mary Lau, president of the retail association. "When you look at the amount per capita taken out of our economy - $9,800 - this is extremely painful. If there's anything positive, it's that it's not falling as fast as it was, the unemployment rate, commercial bankruptcies. It gives us some light at the end of the tunnel."

Assuming Nevadans would otherwise have maintained an income level equal to that attained in December 2008, they cumulatively lost $9.6 billion in income, or $3,700 per capita, in the past year.

Allyson Crisman, project manager for Applied Analysis, said the decline in personal income is particularly astounding and relevant for retailers. It's money that wasn't spent at their stores.

Poor economic conditions have also drained state and local government revenue. General fund revenues are estimated at $2.4 billion, or $238 million below estimates for the state budget in 2009.

"What we're dealing with today is probably more normal than what we saw in 2007 and 2008," Applied Analysis principal Jeremy Aguero said. "What we lost was predicated on unsustainable prices and spending. What we've given back in the economy we probably shouldn't have had in the first place."

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.