Jobless rate drops dramatically in April

Nevada’s unemployment rate dropped dramatically in April.

The seasonally adjusted rate fell a full five-tenths to 8.5 percent, but it was the unadjusted or raw rate that saw the biggest change, falling from 8.7 percent in March to 7.3 percent in April.

Only the statewide rate is seasonally adjusted so the raw rate must be used to compare with the different reporting areas in the state.

A spokesman for the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said that is the biggest single month drop since 1983 with the number of jobless Nevadans falling a full 17,000 to 110,000.

“We are experiencing broad-based growth across nearly all industries and we have added jobs forf nine straight months,” said Gov. Brian Sandoval.

“Nearly all major industries and all of Nevada’s metropolitan statistical areas are growing in this broad-based recovery with nearly every new report bringing noticeable advances,” said Bill Anderson, chief economist for DETR.

In Carson City, the rate fell from 9.6 percent in March to just 7.8 percent in April, a drop of nearly 2 percent. The report says in a workforce of 26,550, there are now just 2,100 unemployed in the capital compared to 2,600 a month ago. Almost all of the improvement was in the private sector with government employers remaining static over the month.

That rate is a full 2.5 percent below where it was in April 2013.

The Reno-Sparks reporting area did very well in April as well, its rate dropping from 8.6 percent to 7 percent. Likewise, Las Vegas saw a 1.4 percent decrease in the jobless rate to 7.4 percent.

To date, there are 44,000 more jobs in Nevada than in the same period of 2013 with all but 1,300 of them coming from the private sector.

Anderson said that means more than half the jobs lost during the recession have now been recovered.

Churchill County saw significant improvement as well. The percentage of residents without jobs there fell 1.2 percent to 6.2 percent. That translates to just 770 seeking employment in a workforce of 12,440.

Douglas County reported 8 percent unemployment, a 1.4 percent decrease with 1,650 jobless in a workforce of 20,750.

Lyon County still has the highest unemployment rate of Nevada’s 17 counties but saw an improvement of 1.9 percent in April. Lyon finished the month at 10.4 percent. That translates to 2,230 jobless out of 21,420 workers.