Las Vegas Valley unemployment down 12.3% & CALIFORNIA = 10.6%

Nevada's unemployment rate was 12.1 percent in August, up from 12 percent in July, the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reported Friday. In Las Vegas, joblessness dropped from 12.9 percent to 12.3 percent, though the employment department doesn't seasonally adjust local rates. That means they can be more volatile than state unemployment.

Despite the different statistical directions, experts agree August's results signal a slight dip in the market after a relatively robust first half of 2012.

Take year-over-year job growth. Nevada added 11,600 jobs year to year in May, and 14,300 jobs year to year in June. By August, annual job growth had stumbled to 5,200. What's more, the state lost 1,000 jobs from July to August, for the third straight month of declines. In all, 165,900 Nevadans, including 121,000 locals, were out of work and looking for jobs in August.

"Losing 1,000 jobs (month to month) isn't necessarily headline news," said Bill Anderson, chief economist for the employment department. "However, when you see a trend developing where we've lost jobs three months in a row, it's evidence that national weakness has trickled down to Nevada."

Added Steve Brown, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas: "I think it is concerning that we've been weak over the summer. I think it's a reflection of the weak national economy kind of spilling over to us."

A weak economy reins in Nevada's fortunes because the state's tourism economy needs visitors who are willing and able to spend discretionary dollars to travel here and indulge in restaurants, shows, shopping and gambling.

Anderson noted that visitor volume into Las Vegas has declined two of the last four months, after nearly two years of nonstop gains.

Still, trends remain mostly positive. They're just less positive than they were, Anderson said.

"Obviously, we'd like to see more pronounced gains," he said.

Leisure and hospitality remained the largest contributor to employment growth in Southern Nevada, though the industry's expansion has trended downward since the beginning of 2012, noted Brian Gordon, a principal in local research firm Applied Analysis.

"We've slowly getting folks back to work, albeit at a very slow and modest pace, and at a pace well below where we should be if we're going to make any meaningful dent in overall unemployment," Gordon said.

Statewide, education and health services, leisure and hospitality and professional and business services such as accounting and law firms gained the most jobs. Locally, education and health services, retail and leisure and hospitality fared better than average. Construction slid both statewide and in Las Vegas, though the rate of decline was far slower than a year ago.

Absent a strengthening national economy, Anderson predicted "more sideways movement" for the state's labor markets.

Nevada has led the nation in unemployment since May 2010. Rhode Island was No. 2 in August at 10.7 percent, and California was No. 3 at 10.6 percent. Unemployment nationwide was 8.1 percent in August.