State unemployment rises to 8 percent
New jobs coming to Wynn Encore and CityCenter are sorely needed in Nevada, where the unemployment rate hit 8 percent in November, the highest level since February 1984, the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reported Friday.
The Strip resorts are hiring some 17,000 people, a small consolation for the 111,700 unemployed Nevadans in today’s economy.
The state’s unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points from October and remained well above the national rate of 6.7 percent.
The rise in unemployment was widespread throughout the state, said Bill Anderson, chief economist for the employment department.
Las Vegas-Paradise and Reno-Sparks metropolitan areas both jumped 0.4 percentage points to 7.9 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively, Carson City rose the most Ñ 0.7 points to 8.1 percent.
“Nevada’s unemployment rate is indicative of the nation’s falling economy and there’s very little optimism that things will turn around soon,” Anderson said.
The National Bureau of Economic Research announced in early December that the economy is in recession, something many Nevadans had known for months, Anderson said.
The recession has affected nearly every sector of Nevada’s economy, from leisure and hospitality to construction, which has been hit hardest, he said. The state has lost nearly 16,000 construction jobs in the past 12 months.
“I think it’s important not to be too gloomy,” Anderson said. “We’re going to come out of this downturn at some point. I’d say in late 2009 we’ll see some stability return. That’s our hope. It’s not going to go on for years.”
Nationwide, employment fell by more than 500,000 for the first time since December 1974. Overall, employment has contracted by 1.9 million jobs this year.
