Nevada Trims Its Beard But Keeps the Limp

Written in spirit, if not whiskey

Nevada has done what any seasoned card player would do with a losing hand–bluff confidence and hope the other fella folds. The state’s unemployment rate, that old tick on the thermometer of public misery, has eked its way down from 5.8 percent to 5.7 percent.

A cause for celebration, perhaps — if one were to cheer a leaky lifeboat just because it’s only taking on slightly less water.

Meanwhile, the Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation–a name so long it might be mistaken for a railroad–reports that fewer folks signed up for jobless benefits last month, down a modest 1.1 percent. That sounds promising until you learn the state shelled out $44.9 million in March to the unemployed–a jump of $4.6 million, or 11.5 percent, from the month before.

Fewer hands held out, but each seemed to be grabbing more.

Las Vegas added 600 jobs–not enough to fill a casino lounge on a rainy Tuesday. Reno did slightly better with 800 new positions–proving once again that the Truckee River runs with a little more hustle than the Neon strip. However, Carson City lost 200 jobs–possibly chasing after a tumbleweed.

The state’s most booming sector was leisure and hospitality, which conjures images of bellhops and blackjack dealers reporting for duty–2,000 new positions appeared like a magic trick. The finance and trade sectors dropped by 1,000 and 900 jobs, respectively–which might explain why your local bank teller looks more nervous than usual.

Altogether, the labor force swelled by 4,095 souls. Of these, 4,730 found work–either legitimate or imaginative–and 635 went back to the waiting room of economic purgatory.

Now, if you look across the fence, you’ll see that other states are doing their fancy stepping, too. Of all places, Idaho strutted to the top with a 2.7 percent employment growth. Utah followed at 2.0 percent.

Meanwhile, Nevada’s annual growth waddled in at 0.6 percent — half the national pace. Las Vegas posted a paltry 0.1 percent increase from March 2024 while shedding 2,900 resort and 2,800 restaurant jobs like an old dog losing fur.

But don’t despair entirely. Construction is booming in the desert, with 6,000 new jobs springing up like cacti in a storm, perhaps heralding new hotels, bridges, and a large lemonade stand.

So here we are, a state with less joblessness, more payouts, and all the peculiar arithmetic that makes the economy feel tragic, comic, and strange enough to be true.