Nevada’s jobs outlook continues to point up, with employment expected to return to pre-recession levels by mid-2016, Nevada’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reported today.
Job growth is expected to climb by 45,000 jobs in 2015, 52,000 jobs in 2016 and approach 60,000 jobs in 2017, surpassing peak levels last seen in 2007. Employment peaked in 2007 at 1.28 million jobs; as of third quarter 2014, the state is at 1.20 million jobs.
The quarterly projections were presented Friday as part of the state’s daylong Economic Forum, a twice-yearly meeting of five independent economic experts that projects Nevada’s revenue and helps lawmakers set the state budget for the next two years.
“Nevada lost about 175,000 jobs from peak to trough,” DETR Chief Economist Bill Anderson said in a statement. “Job gains have continued to accelerate into 2014, though the third quarter still stands 6.7 percent, or 87,000 jobs, below the peak.”
Speaking at the forum, Anderson said the job gains would help shrink the state unemployment rate, which has stalled in recent months at 7.1 percent. He estimated the jobless rate would drop to 6.6 percent this year, 5.6 percent in 2016 and 5.2 percent in 2017, the lowest unemployment rate since a month into the recession in January 2008.
Some of the strongest recovery continues in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Construction, which took a hit of about 90,000 jobs during the recession, is expected to add 7,100 jobs this year, with an additional 8,800 jobs in 2016 and 10,800 jobs in 2017.
Manufacturing, meanwhile, is expected to add 1,100 jobs this year, 1,700 in 2016 and 2,300 in 2017.
Much of those gains will come thanks to the arrival of Tesla’s electric-car battery factory in Storey County, slated to begin operations in 2017. It is projected to account for about 14 percent of the state’s manufacturing base and add about 5,000 new jobs through 2017.