Buy DETR a calculator

Posted on January 30, 2007
Filed Under Online Recruiting, Local Level Recruiting |

We anxiously wait each month for Nevada’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) report on the previous month’s unemployment levels.  Here is the report for December’s unemployment levels in Nevada:

 

DETR December Unemployment

What stands out is Nevada’s overall unemployment level is 4.4%.  So, what’s the big deal?   Well, Las Vegas which is the largest population base in the state is at 4.2%.  Reno, which is second largest is at 3.9%.  Collectively, these two markets make up nearly 90% of the state’s population.  Unemployment levels in both markets are well below 4.4%.  Make sense?  It doesn’t make sense here either.  It would be logical for the state level to be at 4.1% or so. 

In the recruiting business, this is the gauge we manage all of our processes from:

Unemployment Gauge
When the unemployment level is around 4.5%, the micro-economy of recruiting is stable.  Most employers are finding the applicants they are looking for and most jobseekers who want to work are working.  It is a good comfort level for all.  Dip below that threshold and employers begin to hire applicants they normally would not hire and vicious recruiting methods begin to surface. 

When unemployment levels rise above 4.5% employers become more selective as the pool of applicants to draw from increases.  It works just as the real estate market but instead of it being a buyer or seller market it is a jobseeker or employer market.

Nevada has been a jobseeker market for the majority of the past two decades.  That is because our shallow labor pool.  With 8,000 new residents a month moving in, it many times is still not enough.  With Las Vegas expecting to bring more jobs online in the next 5 years than it has the last decade, we need to pay particular attention to these gauges. 

I am willing to pony up a few bucks for a new calculator.  Let’s measure things right.

Comments

One Response to “Buy DETR a calculator”

  1. DETR needs a calculator (part II) : Recruiting Nevada on March 10th, 2008 11:54 am

    […] I have to admit…..I do not get this whole “seasonally adjusted” unemployment level thing.  Nevada Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) just released their ‘unemployment report’ for January and according to the report, our unemployment level dropped.  Now mind you, in December it was announced that Nevada reached the highest unemployment level in many years at 5.8%.  In January, there were more layoff announcements than most ordinary months.  And unemployment levels in all areas of the state were above 5.7% …. but Elko (and Elko’s population is not that large).  Yet - Nevada’s unemployment level in January came in at just 5.5%.  I just don’t get it.  […]

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