State data shows 24,878 held jobs in Elko County in August
ELKO — How many people are out of a job in the Elko area? The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation has released its economic report for August, which shows how job markets across Nevada compare and contrast.
The report includes detailed statistics on employment and unemployment in the Elko area.
"The main data that we have available for Elko and the areas around it comes from our local area unemployment statistics program," David Schmidt, the department's chief economist, said. "This is data that we can use to create estimates for smaller areas of the states."
Data includes Elko County, the city of Elko, as well as the Elko "micropolitan area," which includes Elko and Eureka counties.
"As of August, our most recent information, the unemployment rate in Elko County was 4.4%. It was 4.5% for the micropolitan area of Elko and Eureka combined — and then 4.6% in Elko city itself," Schmidt said.
He said 24,878 people in Elko County and 25,744 for the combined area held jobs in August. In Elko, 9,700 held jobs. In addition, unemployment across the three areas was as high as 1,202 for the combined area — 1,150 in Elko County and 464 in the city.
Schmidt shared how Elko County has seen new unemployment benefit signups. "In August, we had 27 people start receiving unemployment benefits and 11 people stop receiving benefits — and then for the total over the month, about 511 total weeks paid," Schmidt said. "So that's an average of about 130 people collecting unemployment benefits for any particular week over the course of the month."
In August, Elko County saw $230,664 in benefit payments distributed, with an average weekly benefit of $451.40.
Schmidt said it is important to keep in mind how labor can undergo changes in the summer.
"In July, the unemployment rate in Elko County was 4.9%. In August, it was 4.4%. So, it dropped half a percentage point, which is on the larger end," he explained. "That is probably people at the school district and all of the work around that, going back to work for the Elko micropolitan area."
The Elko micropolitan area saw an unemployment rate drop from 4.9% to 4.5% and the city saw a drop from 5% to 4.6%, he added.
"For Elko County, the unemployment rate a year ago was 4.1%. It's currently 4.4%," Schmidt said. The other Elko areas also saw small percentage gains, he said.
"For comparison, the state went from 5.4 to 5.8% unadjusted over the year," he said.
As for a concrete number of unemployed people, "for Elko County, the number of people who are unemployed over the year went from 1,076 to 1,150. That was a gain of 74. So that's pretty much the change that we saw in the labor force there. For the Elko micropolitan area, 1,116, to 1,202, which was a gain of 86 unemployed people. And for Elko city, from 431 to 464, which was an increase of 33 overall."
"Something that is useful to know is the unemployment rate you see in Elko is actually pretty similar to the U.S. unemployment rate. The unadjusted unemployment rate for the country as a whole was 4.4%, which is exactly what we saw in Elko County," Schmidt said.
"Elko County essentially matched the U.S. on the rate, whereas the state as a whole is a little bit higher. That was a 5.8% mark. That's the most directly comparable data," he said.
"A lot of our more rural areas have had lower unemployment rates," he said, noting the highest areas of unemployment in the state are Nye County, Mineral County, Lyon County and Clark County, which range from 6.1% to 7.3%.
"So, we see about a 3-percentage-point drop roughly between Nye County and where Elko County is. The lowest county was White Pine, with an unemployment rate of 3.8%," he said.
Along with unemployment data, Schmidt also had data on how Elko's labor force has grown.
"The Elko County labor force was up very slightly from 25,952 to 26,028, a gain of 76 individuals. The Elko micropolitan area went from 26,833 to 26,946. That's a gain of 113. Elko city went from 10,133 to 10,167, which is a gain of 34 people."
Elko County has seen steady employment, with 24,878 employed individuals in August, compared with 24,876 a year ago. Likewise, Elko has 9,703 workers, compared with 9,702 a year earlier. And the Elko micropolitan area is looking at 25,744 versus 25,717.
