Unemployment down in May as Nevada businesses rehire workers

Nevada’s unemployment rate dropped in May as businesses rehired 32,700 furloughed workers as bars and restaurants reopened.

That dropped the unemployment rate from 28 percent to 25.3 percent.

A spokesman for the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said the state added back jobs at a faster rate than the nation as a whole, but that’s because of the Silver State’s heavy reliance on food service and accommodations as well as retail stores.

“This report reflects the second month of significant impact to the state’s labor market due to COVID-19 business closures,” said Chief Economist David Schmidt.

He said the number of jobs in the state remains 245,300 lower than in May 2019.

“While we have begun to recover from April’s lows, this report still describes a labor market affected by widespread business closure,” Schmidt said.

He said Nevada’s rate, because of its heavy reliance on tourism based industries such as food services, remains well above the national rate of 13.3 percent unemployment.

Statistics are not yet available for the individual labor markets in Nevada. DETR only issued statewide numbers at this point.