Las Vegas unemployment rates slightly worse than last month
Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) - July's unemployment rates in Las Vegas were slightly worse than in June, but showed improvement from July of last year.
The new data shows that 14 percent of Las Vegans are unemployed. That number grew 0.2 percent last month from 13.8 percent in June. However, that rate is lower than last year's rate at the same time, which was 15.7 percent in July of 2010.
On the state level, Nevada's numbers showed the same monthly increase but continued yearly improvement.
In July, 12.9 percent of Nevadans were unemployed, compared to only 12.4 percent in June. But Nevada's rates are down a whole two percentage points from what they were last year. In July of 2010, 14.9 percent of Nevadans were unemployed.
"Many barometers utilized to judge the health of Nevada's economy, such as taxable sales, visitor volume, and gaming win, are pointing upward," said Bill Anderson, chief economist for the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. "Unfortunately, this good news has not translated into improvement in the health of the state's labor market as a whole."
Anderson said that the state's jobless rate has been quite volatile so far this year, driven largely by changes in the labor force.
"Although the much-publicized decline in the jobless rate during the first five months of the year-from 14.9 percent in December 2010 to 12.1 percent in May-was certainly encouraging news, most of the decline was the result of a declining labor force coupled with flat employment trends," Anderson said. "In both June and July, the drop in the labor force has shown signs of leveling off, helping to push the unemployment rate up."
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