Las Vegas jobless rate improves, but still higher than most metro areas across US

Las Vegas’ jobless rate moved lower over the last year but is still higher than most big metro areas across the country, new data shows.

The unemployment rate in the Las Vegas area in September was 4.8 percent, down from 5.7 percent during the same month last year.

Nonetheless, Las Vegas’ unemployment rate was tied with Tucson, Arizona, for seventh highest among the 56 largest metro areas in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among them, Cleveland had the lowest jobless rate last month at 1.9 percent, while Fresno, California, had the highest at 7.3 percent.

Metro-level jobless rates are not seasonally adjusted, meaning they are not stripped of normal seasonal fluctuations in headcount.

Statewide, job growth over the past year accelerated slightly, with gains in healthcare, business services, and construction, according to a recent report from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

In the Las Vegas area, employers added 21,800 jobs over the past year, up 1.9 percent, the department reported, citing seasonally adjusted data.

Southern Nevada relies heavily on visitors traveling here to spend big eating, drinking, gambling, partying and going to shows and conventions to fuel the local economy. Locally and nationally, personal finances have been squeezed this year by higher gas prices and elevated inflation, though visitor volume to America’s casino capital has largely leveled off following a sizable drop last year.

Around 25.8 million people visited Las Vegas this year through August, down 0.1 percent from the same eight-month stretch last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

All told, an estimated 302,800 people locally worked in leisure and hospitality — by far the highest of any industry in Southern Nevada — as of last month, up 0.2 percent from a year earlier, according to non-seasonally adjusted federal data.

Among other industries:

Around 186,600 people worked in professional and business services in the Las Vegas area last month, up 6.3 percent year-over-year; 143,200 people worked in education and health services, up 5.1 percent; and 82,700 people worked in construction, up 2.6 percent.

Southern Nevada business leaders’ confidence jumped significantly in the third quarter, and though they still expected national and local economic conditions to worsen, it was by “smaller magnitudes” than the prior quarter, according to UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research.

Contact Eli Segall at [email protected] or 702-383-0342.