We’re number one

In an interview in the News & Review last week, Washoe County superintendent of schools Heath Morrison contended that the unemployment rate in Nevada is higher than reported, because some unemployed are no longer counted after their jobless benefits run out and other reasons. Also last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provided support for that view.

Earlier reports from the BLS showed joblessness in Nevada in the year 2010 ranged from 13.0 to 14.5. The latter figure, in December, is an all-time high since figures have been kept on the state. (Nostalgia note: The all-time low is 3.8 in April 2000.)

But by including all the factors Morrison referenced, the BLS found the average figure for Nevada joblessness in 2010 was actually 23.6 percent, highest in the nation.

Another report, this one by the Pew Hispanic Center, found that Nevada’s economy is more dependent on illegal labor than other states, with a 10th of the state’s workers illegal.