Nevada Clings to Unemployment Like a Dog to a Bone

The good folks at the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation–who, one presumes, never miss a meal–have released their January 2025 economic report, with all the excitement of a man announcing that he has misplaced his spectacles—again. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remains as stubborn as a mule at 5.8 percent, exactly where it was in December–as if daring the economy to do something about it.

Breaking it down into the three great hubs of civilization in the Silver State, Las Vegas sits at 6.1 percent, Reno holds its head marginally higher at 5.1 percent, and Carson City rests at a dignified five percent as if such figures bring any comfort to a man without two nickels to rub together.

For those preferring a more rustic setting to ponder their empty pocketbooks, unemployment wobbles wildly across the counties. Humboldt County, where folks must have found something useful to do, boasts the lowest unemployment rate at 4.4 percent. Meanwhile, Mineral County, any overachiever in all the wrong ways, soars to a staggering 11.4 percent.

A more distressing bit of arithmetic reveals that unemployment has risen in all of Nevada’s counties, as unwelcome as a skunk at a garden party. Reno-Sparks, perhaps feeling left out, nudged up 0.4 percentage points, while Carson City, ever the competitor, ticked up 0.3. The Las Vegas area, already feeling peckish from its 5.9 percent in December, decided another 0.2 percentage points wouldn’t hurt.

The real champions of this dismal race are Esmeralda, Mineral, and Eureka counties, which saw their jobless numbers climb as though scaling the mountains that surround them, rising 3.5, 1.2, and 1.0 percentage points, respectively. Meanwhile, Churchill, Elko, Clark, and Nye counties took a more reserved approach, with a modest increase of 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points—small but still enough to ensure their citizens remain suitably aggravated.

In summary, Nevada’s economy appears to be following the sage wisdom of an old dog that has settled on a dusty porch–it isn’t improving, but it isn’t getting much worse. And if history has taught us anything, such a situation can persist indefinitely, provided enough official reports are issued to confirm it.