EDITORIAL: Nevada’s unemployment rate falls, but worries remain

It’s emblematic of 2020 that Nevada’s unemployment rate of 10.1 percent is considered good news.

Last December, Nevada’s jobless number was 3.7 percent, virtually full employment. Nevada’s vitality reflected the record-setting national economy overseen by President Donald Trump’s pro-growth policies.

Then came the coronavirus. A global pandemic was inevitably going to hit Nevada’s tourism-dependent economy especially hard. Gov. Steve Sisolak’s forced shuttering of casinos and other businesses exacerbated those difficulties.

In April, Nevada’s unemployment rate topped 30 percent. Gov. Sisolak said earlier this month that was “the highest level ever reported by any state in modern history.” In March, 1.46 million Nevadans were employed. In April, that number dropped to under 1 million. The last time fewer than 1 million Nevadans were employed was in 1999.

Fortunately, the jobless number began to improve the next month. In June, it had declined to 15.2 percent. In October, it was 11.9 percent. By November, it had fallen further to 10.1 percent.

Despite the progress, this remains an ongoing disaster. Nevada is tied with Hawaii for the second-highest rate in the country behind New Jersey’s 10.2 percent. Perhaps more worrisome is that the number of employed Nevadans slightly declined from October to November. The unemployment rate went down, however, because more than 30,000 people left the labor force.

The economic pain isn’t evenly distributed throughout Nevada either. The Reno-metro area’s unemployment rate is 6.3 percent. That’s below the national average of 6.7 percent. The Las Vegas-metro area’s unemployment rate is 13.8 percent, the fourth highest in the country.

Unfortunately, the new economic restrictions Gov. Sisolak imposed in November are likely to slow Las Vegas’ progress. The governor reduced capacity to 25 percent in a host of businesses, including casinos. Earlier this month, he extended these mandates through mid-January. Gov. Sisolak’s whipsawing between reopening and new closures has likely scared away conventions for the next few months.

Gov. Sisolak has said he may implement harsher restrictions in the future absent progress in reducing spread of COVID. But as he said previously, he’s sitting on the edge of a knife. Implementing a California-style stay-at-home order could put Nevada in a situation “as bad or worse than the Great Depression.”

It’s the holiday season, so let’s focus on the good news. The economy has stabilized somewhat, and Nevada’s unemployment rate is declining. But more work must be done to goose a recovery. The priority for Gov. Sisolak and lawmakers as we enter 2021 should be to aggressively emphasize entrepreneurship and private-sector job creation over any further expansion of the state bureaucracy.