Good News? Las Vegas Unemployment Figure Goes Down

The State of Nevada unemployment rate dropped to 13.0 from 13.3% which surprised me.  When looking at the numbers, we lost 21,000 jobs from September but lost 15,400 from the unemployment numbers.  I assume that most of these fell off the back end but may be picked up with the new extension of benefits for another 20 weeks. 

The Las Vegas MSA had unemployment drop from 13.9% to 13.0%.  We lost 16,600 jobs from September but lost 11,300 unemployed. 

The major item is that we did not lose the unemployed to new jobs which would be a reason for improvement.  We lost the unemployed to them no longer looking for work in Nevada or having used up their unemployment benefits from what I can see.   Could this be a bigger negative than just a higher unemployment number?

The only positive is in the population believing things are better. People without jobs have a hard time being productive consumers.

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