Clark County Job Market

The economy in Clark County seems to be improving and has been doing so within the span of an entire year. Between the months of May in 2011 until May of 2012, the county managed to add a total of 1,200 new jobs. The information was first released by the Employment Security Department earlier on in the week. The unemployment rate during the month of May of this year was at 9.4 percent for the county.

While improvements have been made, many say that the celebration is short-lived, especially since the labor market seems to have been flat, even with the improvements that were made. When taking a look at the progress that was made with each month, it shows that in general, the county did not necessarily see much job growth and that the job growth actually stayed flat. The labor economist for the region, Scott Bailey, believes that this means there was not nearly as many improvements made as there should have been. In fact, during the month of February, a total of 500 jobs were lost and the following month, about 100 more jobs were lost. While those jobs were lost, things seemed to bounce back because during April, 800 jobs were created. The jobs are basically bouncing back and forth, according to Bailey, which causes a lot of scattered information. He says that while jobs have been created, when things are looked at more carefully, statistical data shows that progress was sort of flat.

During the month of May, the county managed to add a total of 500 jobs, which some would consider positive news. On the other hand, Bailey says that the county actually needed to add 600 jobs more than the original 500 jobs created, in order for the county’s labor market to be considered as healthy, which means that at this point, the county still has some work to do. While there was some good news and bad news, unemployment claims have declined, which means that some people who were unemployed during previous months may have finally found the employment that they were looking for. Some people believe that the information is just mixed because some people may have found employment while other people may have run out of the unemployment benefits that they were receiving, especially if they had been unemployed for a long time.

Some of the sectors that managed to add jobs within the county include the manufacturing sector, wholesale trade, health care and professional services sectors. Retail trade also managed to add a total of 200 jobs. During the month of April, the unemployment rate for the county was at 10.9 percent, which was a lot higher than what was originally anticipated from residents and economists.