According to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, “Nevada’s unemployment rate rose again for the sixth consecutive month, hitting 7.6 percent in October, which is the highest it’s been since May 1985. The state’s rate has exceeded the national average every month since mid-2007. The national rate was 6.5 percent in October.”

This is up from 7.2 percent in September and 2.5 percent higher than October of 2007. Job losses fell across a broad base of the economy including housing, commercial development and consumer spending. The entire press release follows after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

According to a report released by the travel website Orbitz, Las Vegas McCarran International will see more travelers than any other domestic airport. We jumped 10 spots from last year’s list.

Second on the list is New York’s La Guardia followed by Chicago O’Hare.

And, for the second year in a row, Las Vegas also ranked as the number one desination for the Christmas Holiday, followed by Orlando and New York.

Bring on the tourists Santa!

Nevada has earned an F for its percentage of premature births, according to a state-by-state report card by the national March of Dimes.

The report, released today, says Nevada’s preterm birth rate is 13.9 percent, the highest on the West Coast.

The March of Dimes lists three reasons for Nevada’s high preterm birth rate: a high number of mothers lacking health insurance, smoking, and a rise in early induction labor and C-sections.

Overall, the nation received a D grade.

Las Vegas fell 20 places to #47 in a sustainability index published by the website SustainLane.com. The ranking measures a number of categories such as street congestion, air and water quality, and green building (LEED certification). According to the index, Las Vegas ranks high in energy and climate change policy, green building and low natural disaster risk. Our issues with our tight water supply, metro street congestion, and air quality overwhelmed the positives and pushed us towards the bottom of the list.

The top five cities included Portland, San Francisco,  Seattle, Chicago, and New York City. Among other desert cities, we ranked ahead only of Mesa, AZ (#50), with Albuquerque leading the list at #18.

Fewer cars are being stolen in the Las Vegas area. In fact, thefts are down 32 percent from the same time last year. If the numbers hold, Metro police will have cut the number of auto thefts in Las Vegas by more than half since 2006.

The area with the largest drop was the Las Vegas Strip which saw a 40 percent decrease. Police say that people are being more aware.

Click here to read the complete story.

Most of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s numbers were still heading in the wrong direction in July. The only positive number in this month’s report was a small increase in convention goers (up 0.6 percent) and total number of conventions held (up 8.9 percent). Sadly the economic impact from these increases was actually 3.7 percent lower than July of last year.

Gaming revenue was especially hard hit, falling 15 percent for Clark County as a whole.

The average daily room rate in Las Vegas fell 10 percent to $105.97. The year to date average fell 6.6 percent to $126.51.

(All figures are year over year comparisons)

Total passenger traffic in July was just over 3.9 million as compared to nearly 4.3 million in July of 2007. Out of the top five carriers servicing McCarran, only American Airlines was able to eek out a gain in passengers with a 3.6% growth over last year. Southwest fell 5.6%, United was down 8.9% and US Airways suffered the largest percentage drop at 17.3%.

The number of unemployed workers in Nevada closed in on the 100,000 mark in July. There are currently 94,900 people unemployed compared to 67,700 this time last year, according to a report issued by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. The mood in the employment market has turned more pessimistic recently, with the delay of several construction projects, including the freeze of the Echelon project. The one bright spot is the fact that the number of existing home sales have increased over the past six months.

The state’s unemployment rate continued to pull away from the national rate in June, which remained at 5.5 percent, according to a report released today by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation.

The unemployment rate in Las Vegas Valley was a bit higher than the state’s average, standing at 6.5%. The area shed 6,200 jobs in June and for the first time since 2002, year-over-year growth declined for four consecutive months.

Two factors were cited as reasons for the increase in the rate. They included recent disappointing gaming revenue, and more people re-entering the workforce in order to cope with rising prices of things like fuel and food.

The only sliver lining in today’s report – make that gold lining – was that in mining areas, such as Elko and White Pine counties, the unemployment rate remained below 5 percent thanks to the fact that gold prices remain near their historic highs.

Las Vegas drivers are once again near the bottom of a list when it comes to America’s best drivers. According to the Allstate Best Drivers Report, Las Vegas came in at 165 out of 200 cities. It found that Las Vegas drivers are likely to experience a car accident every 7.9 years, compared to the national average of every 10 years. Sioux Falls, Idaho drivers were ranked the safest. Do you agree with the report?