Despite Las Vegas’ spot at the top of the foreclosure and unemployment rankings, Clark County has continued to grow and remains the 15th largest county in the nation, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Las Vegas kept its spot as the 30th largest metropolitan area in the nation, as well. The city had the same ranking last year.
The data is the last annual estimate of population before the completion of the 2010 census. The data is an estimate of population as of July 1, 2009.
According to the Census Bureau, Clark County had 1,902,834 residents on July 1, 2009. That represents a 1.3 percent increase from the previous year, when the county had 1,879,093 residents.
I recently attended the International Association of Employment Websites (IAEWS) Annual Congress in San Diego. Yes – there is a professional association of all the job boards in the World….some 10,0000 of them. And we meet 1-2x per year to discuss issues and opportunities facing our industry.
At the conference there was a lot of buzz about Social Resumes. So, what the heck is a social resume? I asked the same question. How is it different than a standard resume? What makes it social? Does this cross privacy lines?
The answers I heard were…a resume that not only focuses on experience and education, but also on hobbies, philanthropic interests, blog posts, social interests/networks, etc. Supposedly many more employers are adapting the whole work-live concept and want to know the social networks that their future employees run in. I find this very interesting and will continue to blog on it as I discover more. Reality is, employers are discovering a lot of this as they research candidates on Facebook. A social resume will just expect the candidate to be more transparent.
Some interesting information and data was presented at the SNCBA (Southern Nevada Compensation & Benefits Association) monthly meeting on March 23 by Liz Snyder from Hewitt on the recession and employee compensation.
Hewitt’s global compensation survey of more than 6,000 large companies in 46 countries revealed that projected average pay raises around the world will increase or stabilize this year compared to 2009. However, these amounts are still considerably lower than pre-recession salary increases.
If you are a human resources professional working in the areas of compensation and benefits, or perhaps you work for a smaller company and have to handle compensation and benefits issues, please consider attending the next meeting in May. Check the SNCBA website which will be updating the information on the May meeting OR you can always check our list of HR Events and Conferences.
Nevada’s unemployment rate rose to 13.2 percent in February. The 13.2 percent equates to 189,000 workers out of work in Nevada. However, employers did add 10,400 jobs over the month, which was the first increase since October 2009, said Bill Anderson, chief economist with the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
Las Vegas-Paradise picked up most of job growth with an increase of 7,400. Reno-Sparks added 1,600 jobs and Carson City 100. Job growth by industry was widespread, though a good portion of the growth, 3,900, was in state government, which corresponded to the start of the spring semester at the State’s higher education institutions. Other improving sectors include leisure and hospitality (+2,700), professional and business services (+2,200), and education and health services (+1,800). Gains were partially offset by losses in trade, transportation and utilities and financial activities, which fell by 800 and 300 jobs, respectively.
The Las Vegas-Paradise unemployment rate increased from 13.8 to 13.9 percent. The unemployment rate in Reno-Sparks held steady at 13.4 percent, and the Carson City MSA experienced a decline in its unemployment rate, falling from 13.8 percent to 13.7 percent. (Unemployment rates for the State’s metropolitan areas are not adjusted for seasonality. For comparison purposes, the State’s unadjusted unemployment rate was 13.7 percent in February.)
Let’s be frank: Our employees do a bad job of taking care of themselves. And the less they do, the more it costs our organizations. And, at the end of the day, employers pay the piper for their bad behavior, eating habits, lack of exercise and everything health related. Our insurance premiums go up and employee healthiness goes down.
I have been involved in a non-profit organization that tackles this issue every day. Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition, commonly referred to as SNMIC, advocates for quality health care in Southern Nevada through collaboration with public and private organizations, concerned citizens and healthcare professionals.
We have several hundred volunteer members working on one of several task forces: Recruitment, Retention, Education, Strategic Alliances and Legislative. Their accomplishments are impressive to say the least. It is hard to quantify the amount of money this group has saved our community but I can assure you it is in the millions.
SNMIC is hosting a Spring Healthcare Forum & Expothat would be well worth your attending. Obviously, the forum will be focused around healthcare. But more importantly, around topics of what we (employers) can do to help improve the quality of health care in Southern Nevada. Each one of our task forces will provide a brief update as to their recent accomplishments and what they are currently working on. We will also have a forum discussion moderated by Jon Ralston. Members of that panel will include Dr. Joe Hardy (State Senate Candidate and current Nevada Assemblyman), State Senator Allison Copening and State Senator Valerie Weiner.
I hope you are able to attend. Here are some details:
A new survey shows that four of ten residents are looking to leave Las Vegas. This surely is not good news. And it is all due to the loss of jobs in Las Vegas. Las Vegas has boomed during the good times and we are falling hard during the bad. Most of this has to do with our lack of economic diversification.
I had the opportunity to see another presentation from the Brooking Institute again this morning. We all need to pay attention to this and get on-board. Las Vegas, and Nevada, has the opportunity to leverage what we do have and build a World Class city in the future so we do not have these boom and bust cycles.
According to a new study that was released from the Department of Labor, “Quit Rates” are at the lowest volume since they began measuring the statistic in 2000. Simply put, jobseekers are afraid to leave the security of their current job without having another job in place. And until employers begin to hire again, employees are staying put. This false ‘retention measure’ will ultimately impact employers in Nevada as the economy rebounds and jobseekers feel secure enough to move on. I have heard of studies stating that some 68% of employees plan to change jobs when the economy recovers. There has never been a more important time than now to build employee loyalty and work on your employment brand.
We are down to our last couple of spaces for exhibitors! Please let us know if you’d like to exhibit at our LasVegasSun.com Career Fair on April 6th at Green Valley Ranch. Our exhibitors always tell us we have the most qualified and professional job seekers. Contact us at 702-240-4100 for more information.
I have been involved in a non-profit organization that tackles this issue every day. Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition, commonly referred to as 
