Employment grows, but pace starts to slow

Northern Nevada continues to post solid increases in basic employment the sorts of jobs that support the rest of the economy but the pace is slowing.

Regional economic agencies and the Nevada Commission on Economic Development reported in recent days that job growth continued strong.

The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada said it worked with 38 companies that generated 1,657 new jobs in the Reno-Sparks area in the fiscal year ended June 30. That's down 12 percent from the 1,890 jobs generated a year earlier.

The Northern Nevada Development Authority said it worked with 23 companies that generated 720 jobs, an increase of 8 percent over the prior fiscal year.

The state Commission on Economic Development, meanwhile, said job creation among companies it assisted in northern Nevada declined by 25 percent in the fiscal year. In the most recent 12 months, the commission said, it helped companies that generated 756 new jobs in northern Nevada. A year earlier, the figure was 1,014 jobs. (The figures collected by EDAWN, NNDA and the commission have some overlap.)

Joe Reel, director of research and business development for the Commission on Economic Development, said the employment figure was in line with slowing job growth nationwide.

At the same time, he noted that companies are investing more heavily in plants and equipment in northern Nevada.

The 20 companies that sought state incentives for northern Nevada operations during the just-completed fiscal year planned to invest $143.1 million nearly a 38 percent increase from year-earlier figures.

"The dramatic increase in capital investment was certainly a pleasant surprise and demonstrates the confidence that companies have in Nevada's economy," Reel said.

EDAWN, which uses a sophisticated software package to track the economic impact of its work, says the new and expanding companies with which it worked in the most recent 12 months will generate first-year economic benefits of $402 million.

That's up by 22 percent over the $330 million in economic impact generated by new and expanding companies during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2006.

In the four counties served by NNDA Carson City, Storey, Lyon and Douglas the economic impact of expansions and relocations is estimated at $192.5 million, up 72 percent from year-earlier figures.

Larie Trippet, NNDA's business development manager, said the economic value of new jobs is increasing. That's seen, he says, as the economic impact figure rises more quickly than the jobs figures.

EDAWN noted that the most recent figures mark the first time that expanding companies and companies that decided against moving out of the area accounted for the largest number of corporate decisions.

The agency worked with 18 new companies, 17 expanding companies and three retention projects during the year.

The story was the same for NNDA, where expanding companies accounted for 52 percent of the workload.

Manufacturing accounted for the lion's share of the companies with which EDAWN and NNDA worked 58 percent for EDAWN and 82 percent for NNDA.

Ray Bacon, executive director of the Nevada Manufacturers Association, said growth in the manufacturing sector has been consistent in northern Nevada.

He noted the region benefited from some good-sized new manufacturers such as American AVK Co. Inc. The company, which manufactures fire hydrants and gate vales, launched a facility at Minden that adds 76 manufacturing jobs.

"It doesn't take many of those to drive the numbers," Bacon said.

Nevada continues to lead the nation in growth of manufacturing jobs, and Bacon said the state's location close to major Western markets and its tax climate are attractive to manufacturers.

"Plus," he said, "California is still stupid."

Chuck Alvey, the president and chief executive of EDAWN, said manufacturers looking for locations in the Silver State typically make high-value products that require a skilled workforce or are companies too small to send their manufacturing offshore.

In either case, he said the state's competitive workers compensation rates and the development of training programs such as a specialization in manufacturing at Truckee Meadows Community College prove important.