Nevada’s unemployment rate remained at 7.7% in July as job growth in the state overall and the construction industry were flat for the month. The state still shows substantial year-over-year gains, with the construction industry maintaining the highest percentage job growth in the last twelve months, according to the monthly employment report from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR).
Construction added 100 jobs in the state during the month and total employment in the industry is 13.4% higher than a year ago, on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
Overall Nevada lost 200 jobs during July, which broke a streak of eleven consecutive months of job growth. But for the sixth straight month employment in the state was more than 40,000 higher than twelve months earlier, with 44,600 more jobs in Nevada than in July 2013.
Employment by Specialty Trade Contractors increased by 600 in July and is up 800 from July 2013. The figures supplied by DETR for sub-categories of industries and for individual counties and metropolitan areas in the state are not seasonally-adjusted.
The construction industry lost 1,000 jobs in Clark County during July but employment in the industry remained 2,200 greater than twelve months earlier. Specialty Trade Contractors in the county employed 800 fewer people in July than the previous month and 1,000 fewer than last July, according to the DETR report.
Construction employers in Washoe and Storey Counties added 600 jobs in July and have gained 400 since July 2013.
For the official unemployment rate, the DETR uses a measure of “labor underutilization” called U-3. DETR describes this as “the total of unemployed workers as a percentage of the civilian labor force.” Unemployed workers in this calculation includes only those who are not working but who continue to look for work.
The DETR report includes explanations of the various labor underutilization measures from U-3 up through U-6, which includes U-3 unemployed along with workers who are not working and not currently looking for work as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer a full-time job. The U-6 unemployment rate in Nevada is 16.2%.
The DETR report notes, “Nevada was within the highest three positions in all six measures of labor underutilization through 2014:IIQ.”