April jobs report shows healthy employment gains over year in Carson City, Reno and Vegas

Statewide jobs increased by 3.6 percent, a gain of 49,600 new jobs added since April of last year across the Silver State, according to an economic report released Tuesday by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training Rehabilitation.

The Reno metropolitan statistical area (MSA) added jobs at the rate of 5.6 percent during the same annual period, while Las Vegas and Carson City grew by 2.4 and 3.7 percent respectively.

All three MSAs had faster employment growth rates than the national rate of 1.8 percent. When compared to March, the only MSA to not have an increase in jobs was Carson City which remained constant, according to DETR. Both the Las Vegas and Reno MSAs had seasonally adjusted (data adjusted to show underlying trends in employment) increases of 100 jobs and 600 jobs respectively.

April’s report also illustrated that unemployment was down compared to March of this year, and April 2018 within all the state’s MSAs. On a county level, decreases were seen in 16 of 17 counties with an increase of 0.6 percent in Pershing county when compared to April 2018.

Since March five counties saw increases in unemployment, three remained constant, and nine counties had decreases in unemployment. All published cities and combined regional areas showed decreases compared to March this year and from April 2018, except Mesquite which showed an increase of 0.1 percent from March.

“In April, Nevada once again led the nation in job creation over the last twelve months, a trend reflected in today’s report on the state’s local areas. All three of the state’s MSAs experienced job growth which exceeded the national average of 1.8 percent.

Further, unemployment rates across almost all of our counties, metropolitan areas, and cities declined over the year. Overall, the labor market continues to be tight, with low unemployment and expanding job opportunities,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist, for Nevada’s Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation. Additional April 2019 Economic Report Highlights:

Job Growth in April (Seasonally-Adjusted):

— Carson City remained constant over the month, and is up 1,100 jobs over the year (3.7 percent).
— Reno added 600 jobs over the month and 13,600 over the year (5.6 percent).
— Las Vegas is up 100 jobs over the month and is up 24,400 over the year (2.4 percent).

All three of the MSAs have employment growth rates higher than the national growth rate of 1.8 percent.

Unemployment:
— Carson City: 3.6 percent, down 0.5 percentage point from March, and down 1.4 percentage point from a year ago.
— Reno: 2.9 percent; down 0.3 percentage point from March, down 0.7 percentage from this time last year.
— Las Vegas: 3.7 percent; down 0.1 percentage point from March, and down 1.1 percentage points from a year ago.

Since April 2018, 16 of 17 counties showed decreases in unemployment with Pershing showing an increase of 0.6 percent.

Five counties had over the month increases in unemployment. Eureka at 0.5 percent, Humboldt and Storey at 0.1 percent, Pershing at 0.7 percent, and Washoe at 0.4 percent.

Nine counties had decreases in unemployment when compared to March. Carson City, Esmeralda, Lander, Lyon, and Mineral at 0.5 percent; Churchill, Clark, and Elko at 0.1 percent; and Douglas county at 0.4 percent.

Unemployment rates remained constant in Lincoln, Nye, and White Pine counties.

Eureka and Esmeralda, at 2.5 percent, have the State’s lowest unemployment rate, and Nye had the highest at 4.8 percent.

On a city level Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Sparks, and Reno had decreases in unemployment on a monthly and annual basis.

All the state specific areas also had over-the-month and year decreases with the exception of Mesquite that increased by 0.1 percent from March.

Residential construction employment in both Clark County and Washoe County have been seeing slow but steady increases in the share of residential construction since 2010, and both have a concentration in residential housing slightly higher than in 2006.

Storey County Leads Construction Employment from 2013 to 2018 with an overall gain of 474.2 percent.

Clark County job ads increased by 11,290 over April 2018, totaling 22,689 ads for the month, Carson City increased 4 ads over April 2018 for a total of 611. Washoe County had an increase of 2,033 job ads from this time 2018 for a total of 5,058.