LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Las Vegas added 6,100 jobs in February, a jump of .05% over the previous month, and 58,000 jobs since February 2022, a state agency said Thursday.
The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation’s (DETR) February 2023 economic report said statewide employment has grown by 74,700 jobs since February of last year, an increase of 5.1%.
The state’s total employment level is 1,537,700 with an unemployment rate of 5.5% in February. That’s unchanged from January, the DETR said in a news release, and a jump from 5.3% in February 2022.
Statewide, 7,000 jobs were added in February, with the Reno area adding 1,600 jobs and the Carson City area experiencing no change from the previous month.
Las Vegas adding 58,000 jobs since February 2022 is a jump of (5.5%), the report said. Reno is at 12,500 (4.8%) and Carson City 1,200 (3.9%).
David Schmidt, the state’s chief economist, said the February job growth over January was a “pace comparable to the best months of job gains in 2018 and 2019.”
Added Schmidt: “In January, Nevada had the fastest annual job growth in the nation, and Las Vegas had the fastest job growth among large metropolitan areas. And our job market remains very tight, with job openings more than 20,000 higher than the total number of unemployed workers.”
The monthly report also said the state’s labor force grew by 1,329, of which 756 were employed and 573 unemployed.