Reno-Sparks jobless rate leads Nevada at 4.1 percent

Carson City experienced the highest percentage of employment growth in March among Nevada’s metropolitan areas, adding 4.4 percent more jobs, according to recent state-released figures.

But at 5.6 percent, Carson City’s jobless rate remains higher than the state as a whole, which finished March at 4.9 percent. Nonetheless, Carson City improved by three tenths from February and now has just 1,500 job seekers in a labor force of 26,300.

Among the metro areas, Reno-Sparks remains the leader with a jobless rate of just 4.1 percent. That translates to 10,200 in a labor force of 246,600 and down a tenth from February. With Reno’s booming economy, the area has added 10,000 workers over the past year.

Las Vegas improved by a tenth as well, finishing March at 5.1 percent unemployment. There are about 55,800 in that area seeking work in a pool of just under 1.1 million.

Altogether, 11 of Nevada’s 17 counties improved during the month of March. That includes Churchill County, where the unemployment rate dipped three tenths to 4.3 percent from February. Churchill has just 481 looking for work out of 11,220 in the labor force.

Douglas County also saw a three-tenths improvement, finishing March at 4.5 percent. That’s 1,031 out of 23,009.

Lyon County improved as well — by a tenth — but continues to struggle with 6.3 percent out of work. That’s 1,396 jobless out of 22,224 workers. That’s the highest county unemployment rate in the state.

Storey County reported a decrease in unemployment of seven tenths from 5.4 percent to 4.7 percent. But that number is misleading since the number of residents with jobs actually decreased by three to 1,907. The difference was a decrease of 19 in the labor force to 2,000.

With one exception, Nevada’s mining counties — Elko, Eureka, Esmeralda, Humboldt — were all below 4 percent. The one exception was White Pine, which finished March at 4.3 percent.

Because Las Vegas is booming, the Silver State now has record high employment — 1.37 million. Las Vegas has added 24,300 jobs over the past year and now has 998,200 people employed.