Nevada labor market softening, report says

Month-to-month changes in employment and unemployment indicators showed signs of a softening job market in September, new data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation show.

The pace of job growth slowed last month while the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate ticked up slightly between August and September, according to the state’s monthly employment report. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point, and now sits at 5.6 percent. The annualized job growth rate slowed from 2.9 percent to 2.1 percent in September.

Nevada added about 1,000 jobs from August to September, boosting the state’s labor force to roughly 1.6 million people, according to the report. That total has increased by roughly 11,000 people since September 2023.

“The construction and leisure industries saw the largest declines, offset by gains in professional and business services as well as smaller gains in most other sectors,” David Schmidt, DETR’s chief economist, said of the statewide overview data in an Oct. 17 release. “At the same time, hourly wages rose at the fastest pace so far this year to an average of $30.69 from July- September, a gain of 4.2% compared to the same period in 2023.”

Still, unemployment rates declined at the metropolitan level, according to a Wednesday report that analyzes city and county-specific employment figures. The Las Vegas area’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 5.9 percent in September, decreasing from 6.1 percent in August but up 0.4 percentage points from the same month one year ago.

In the Reno area, September’s unemployment rate reached 4.3 percent (down from 4.7 percent in August, but up 0.2 percentage points from a year ago) and 4.7 percent in the Carson City area, a decrease from 5 percent in August but up from 4.3 percent in September 2023.

The national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.1 percent, in September. The country added more jobs in September than economists expected, easing concerns about a broad weakening labor market.