Friday Fact Pack! Nevada tops unemployment rate rankings
By Hightower Las Vegas and RCG Economics on March 24, 2023
Unemployment rates were lower in February in nine states, higher in three states and the District of Columbia, and stable in 38 states, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Thirteen states had jobless rate increases from a year earlier, 10 states and D.C. had decreases, and 27 states had little change.
The national headline (U-3) unemployment rate edged up to 3.6 percent but was 0.2 percentage point lower than in February 2022.
Lowest jobless rates:
- North Dakota and South Dakota (2.1 percent)
- Nebraska (2.3 percent)
- Montana and Utah (2.4 percent, series lows)
- Wisconsin (2.7 percent, a series low)
- Maryland (2.9 percent, a series low)
Nevada had the highest unemployment rate, 5.5 percent.
Nevada Jobs
According to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation’s (DETR) February 2023 economic report, Nevada gained 7,000 jobs over the month, seasonally adjusted.
Employment is up 74,700 since February 2022, an annual increase of 5.1 percent.
Nevada vs. U.S. rate:
As of February 2023
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) employment (Seasonally Adjusted):
- Las Vegas employment increased by 6,100 jobs (0.5 percent) since January, an increase of 58,000 jobs (5.5 percent) since February 2022.
- Reno employment had an increase of 1,600 jobs (0.6 percent) since January, an increase of 12,500 jobs (4.8 percent) since February 2022.
- Carson City employment saw no change in jobs since January, but an increase of 1,200 jobs (3.9 percent) since February 2022.
Nye County still has the highest unemployment rate among counties in the state (5.7 percent):
As of January 2023
Lander County had the lowest January unemployment rate (2.7 percent).
Cost of Living
Apartment List is out with a new report and interactive data tool examining differences in cost of living across the U.S. using data from the Council for Community and Economic Research. With the tool, you can compare cost of living in many of the nation’s largest cities for six metrics: housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, healthcare, and other miscellaneous goods and services.
Some highlights include:
- The overall cost of living in Las Vegas is roughly equal to than the national average. Vegas ranks 46th out of the 100 large cities included in the report.
- Across the county, housing is by far the most impactful expense when it comes to overall cost of living. In Las Vegas, housing costs are 7 percent higher than the national average.
- When compared to the national average, groceries in Las Vegas are 4 percent more expensive, utilities are 8 percent more expensive, transportation costs are 12 percent more expensive, and health care is 9 percent cheaper.
Here’s how Reno compares to Las Vegas:
As of March 2023
Indicators
As of 12/24/23
Fed Projections
Current Wall Street GDP tracking estimates show decent GDP growth in Q1 (although there is a wide range of estimates). GDP projections for 2023 were revised down, though, contrary to recent data. Unemployment projections for the next two to three years have the rate staying under 5 percent:
Wage Growth
Between 2019 and 2022, low-wage workers saw historically fast real wage growth, driven by policy decisions related to either the pandemic or its aftermath, per the Economic Policy Institute. The 10th percentile real hourly wage grew 9.0 percent over that three-year period.
As of December 2023
Coping Through Credit
Over the last three years, the biggest inflation spikes have occurred in the categories of transportation (+23.8 percent), food and beverages (+21.5 percent), and housing (+16.4 percent).
Source: Upgraded Points as of 1/16/23
These spending categories are difficult for households to cut back on, leading roughly one in five consumers to resort to credit card use to cover expenses:
Source: Upgraded Points as of 1/16/23
Maine sits at the top of the list, with 24.6 percent of adults reporting an increased reliance on credit cards due to rising prices. Nevada had the 4th highest rate of increased credit card usage to cope with inflation pressures.
Source: Upgraded Points as of 1/16/23
In Nevada, 38.2 percent of adults in Nevada said they relied on credit cards to meet their spending needs, and 24.4 percent said they increased their credit card usage due to recent price increases.
For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, go here.
Home Sales
Higher mortgage rates and home prices, along with increased construction costs contributed to lackluster new home sales in February. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in February increased 1.1 percent to a 640,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. However, new home sales are down 19 percent compared to a year ago.
Graph from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB):
As of February 2023
NAHB says builders continue to face challenges including higher interest rates, elevated construction costs, and access to critical materials like electrical transformers. Access to AD&C financing also will be a challenge for builders in the coming months due to recent banking system stress, the organization projects.
New single-family home inventory fell for the fifth straight month. The February reading indicated an 8.2 months’ supply at the current building pace. (However, single-family resale home inventory stands at a reduced level of 2.5 months per the National Association of Realtors).
Inventory trend graph from NAHB:
As of February 2023
The median new home sale price rose in February to $438,200, up 2.5 percent compared to a year ago. A year ago, roughly 15 percent of new home sales were priced below $300,000, while that share is now just 10% of homes sold.
Electric or Gas?
Some states are looking to reduce natural gas use as part of the move toward green energy. Here’s which states’ residents tend use electric vs. gas stoves:
As of December 2020
EV Investments
From The Daily Shot newsletter, a graph showing which companies are investing big in electric vehicle technology:
As of 2/10/23
Table:
As of 2/10/23
High-tech Equipment Making
State Revenue
A Pew Research analysis shows that Nevada was among the states that most heavily rely on taxes for revenue in 2021, along with California, Minnesota, Illinois and Connecticut:
As of 12/31/21
China’s Rise to Russia’s Primary Trade Partner
Chinese President Xi Jinping recently visited Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. This Statista infographic shows how crucial China has become to the Russian economy over the last two decades:
As of December 2020
As you can see, Russia has continuously expanded the share of its imports from China. As data from the trade portal Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) shows, the share of the total value of Russia’s imports coming from China was around 24 percent before the start of the Ukraine war, whereas at the beginning of the millennium, Russia still sourced most of its imports from Germany (13.8 percent).
The most important import goods Russia acquired from China in 2020 included communications equipment technology, as well as equipment for recording and reproducing images and sound. Russia also imports a lot of office machines and machines for automatic data processing.
China, for its part, mainly imports crude oil and petroleum products from Russia.
Happy Happy
Finland leads this year’s ranking of the world’s happiest countries for the sixth year in a row, according to the 2023 World Happiness Report released Monday. A sizeable chunk of the top ten are also Scandinavian: Denmark took second place, Iceland took third, Sweden took sixth and Norway took seventh.
Slightly further down the list stands the U.S. in 15th place and the UK in 19th:
As of Dec. 2022
At the bottom of the ranking are Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Lebanon and Afghanistan.
(Note: Critics argue that the index is problematic because the term “happiness” could be disputed. In the case of Finland, at least, those critics say “satisfaction with their lives” would have been better. In a 2018 paper on the topic, one Finnish writer pointed out that Nordic countries came out on top for factors like GDP per capita and freedom from oppression, but Latin American countries such as Paraguay and Guatemala would have been considered the happiest if the index was based on the amount of positive emotion people experience, while African countries including Togo and Senegal would have ranked higher when based on whether citizens experience their lives as “meaningful.”)
On the Horizon
Mike PeQueen: Next Friday’s release of the Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index (PCE), which is considered the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, will be the number to watch — along with any more statements from Janet Yellen about whether the federal government will backstop bank deposits above the FDIC limit.
Next week’s MarketWatch calendar:
