Carson City unemployment is lower than previous years, so why are there so many 'help wanted' signs?

Help wanted signs hanging in the windows of local businesses have become a common sight in Carson City and the country as a whole.

Restaurants and retail locations across the nation are desperate for workers, especially skilled workers such as chefs, but are having to close their doors for want of workers. Some employers have blamed increased unemployment benefits for the lack of people wanting to work.

However, the idea that the problem is solely about unemployment benefits being higher than wages is not supported by the data.

The last available unemployment statistic was released in May, stating that unemployment in Carson City has reached 5 percent. This is significantly lower than the 20 percent in April 2020, but it’s also lower than the peak of 2019 (5.1 precent), 2018 (5.7 percent), 2017 (6.5 percent) and 2016 (7.5 percent).

Given this data, it’s clear that Carson City residents are in fact working, and more of them are working now than they were in previous years.

There is merit to the assertion that those on unemployment are making more than they would in a normal year; UI was paying an average of $335.54 per week to Nevada workers, averaging slightly below the minimum wage at $8.38 per hour for a full-time worker, according to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR).

However, the federal government also supplemented an additional $300 per week through the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), bumping that average to $635.54 or approximately $15 per hour.

While $15 per hour is still under the average $25 per hour wage of Carson City workers, it can make a huge difference for those only making minimum wage.

Despite this, the data shows that there are not more unemployed people in Carson City than there were in previous years.

In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently only 1,342 workers collecting UI in Carson City; less than the beginning of 2018, which has 1,440 workers collecting UI, and is on par with the beginning of 2019, when 1,336 workers were collecting UI.

But the question remains, as certain industries such as food service and retail are still struggling to find workers, where did they go?

Industry Statistics

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was a 23.7 percent increase in the employment category of Trade, Transportation and Utilities, (which includes wholesale merchandise, retail, warehousing and energy) and a 57.1 percent increase in Leisure and Hospitality with preliminary numbers pointing to 61 percent for May 2021.

Leisure and Hospitality, by the Labor Statistics definition, includes two categories: Arts, Entertainment and Recreation, as well as Accommodation and Food Services.

In the Reno area, there was an increase of 90.6 percent in Leisure and Hospitality between May 2020 and May 2021. The overall unemployment rate for the Reno area in May was 4.5 percent, .5 percent lower than Carson City.

This could be explained by hotels, casinos and other entertainment industries reopening at full capacity and rehiring their laid off workers.

In Carson City, the average entry-level wage for Food Preparation is significantly lower than other industries at only $8.37 per hour or just above $17K per year, which even falls below the Nevada Minimum Wage at $9.75 per hour, while the average wage is slightly above minimum wage at $11.41 per hour, according to Nevada Work Force.

Sales industry wages are much higher, with an average of $20 per hour, and other industries increase even higher, with educators making an average of $22 per hour, those in business and financial operations making an average of $31 per hour, and healthcare workers making an average of $43 per hour.

High Housing Costs

For Carson City, the average rent of currently listed house and apartment rentals is $2,035, based on what was listed on Zillow as of July 8, 2021. Only one apartment had rent listed under $1,200 for a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment.

The average Carson City home is currently selling for over $400,000, an 18.4 percent increase over the past year.

For an individual to be able to afford the average current rental price in Carson City, they would need to make $42 per hour at a full time job to account for $2,035 amounting to 30 percent of their total monthly income.

For those making minimum wage, a total of four adults working full time would be needed to rent one average rental in Carson City.

In Carson City, the average wage falls just below $25 per hour, or $51,530 per year.

Things are not looking hopeful for an end to the affordable housing crisis in Nevada, as bills aimed at addressing the issue failed during recently completed legislative session, with opponents of affordable housing bills contributing more than $1.3 million to the campaigns of lawmakers.

Unemployment Payments

The number of individuals receiving unemployment has also decreased significantly as the economy has reopened.

According to Nevada Work Force, in May 2020, nearly 4,000 people received Unemployment Insurance (UI) payments in Carson City; in July 2021, that number is just over 500, while federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) were just over 1,000.

In Douglas County and Lyon County, the numbers are almost identical, while in Washoe County in May 2020, nearly 40,000 Washoe County workers were receiving UI, and now the number is at around 5,000 with just over 10,000 receiving PEUC.

Initial claims fell by a staggering 93 percent between March 2020 to May 2021.

Drop in College Enrollment

More and more young adults are also choosing the workforce over going to college, citing prohibitive costs and questions about the return on their investment in our economy, according to NPR.

With Americans being weighed down with $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, more and more young people are choosing to forego higher education due to the rising costs. For many seasonal jobs such as lifeguards, ski instructors, camp counselors and other seasonal-dependent jobs, that means less teenagers and young adults are free to work during the summer and winter holidays while off from school.

According to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, spring enrollment across the country fell by over 600,000 students, seven times worse than the decline only a year beforehand. In Spring of 2019, there was a staggering decline in enrollment at private, for-profit four-year institutions, declining by nearly 20 percent.

In 2015, there were over 18.5 million students enrolling in higher education in the Spring semester; in 2020, the number had fallen by over a million students with only 17.5 million adults choosing to enroll in college.

Workforce demographic changes

One potential reason there is a shortage of minimum wage workers is because young adults aren’t rushing into the labor force as they once were. A majority of young adults are living with their parents now — the first time since the Great Depression, according to the Pew Research Center.


With over 52 percent of young adults living at home, there is less of a need for young adults to work two to three low paying jobs to get by like they used to. Teenagers are spending more time at school and at after-school activities than being employed, and the trend has been increasing steadily since 2000.

Additionally, 20 percent of Carson City’s population is under 18, while 20 percent is 65 years or older, which accounts for over 22,000 people who are either potentially too young to work, or have retired. Only 12 percent of Carson City’s population is in their 20s, the traditional age of those entering the workforce for lower-paying wages.

The 60 percent left also does not account for those who may commute to Reno, Lake Tahoe or the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center for work.

Prohibitive Childcare Costs

Prohibitive child care costs are also keeping more parents home to care for their young children; with five percent of Carson City’s population being under the age of 5, that amounts to almost 2,800 children who are not old enough for school.

With 62 percent of Carson City’s households made up of families, that adds additional strain to the dwindling workforce for families who simply cannot afford to send their children to daycare.

In 2018, the average cost of daycare in Carson City was $576 per month for one child. That amount alone is over 35 percent of the total monthly income of a full-time worker making minimum wage before taxes.

Since the pandemic, 28 percent of women with kids under 18 in the household have temporarily or permanently left the workforce to become a primary caregiver to children across the nation, according to an article published in Feb. 2021. Half of those families stated the cost of external child care played a “significant role” in that decision.

It would appear that the lack of workforce for low-paying, entry-level jobs in Carson City and beyond is not as cut and dry as people simply not wanting to work or collecting unemployment, but rather a perfect storm of high housing costs, high childcare costs, and a smaller overall percentage of the population engaging in the workforce.