New survey findings from the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) reveal the critical challenges Nevada job seekers faced as they attempted to re-enter the workforce in 2024, including mismatches between job preferences and available roles, transportation barriers, and gaps in training and certification access.
CBER’s annual Nevada Job Seeker Survey focuses exclusively on the frictions individuals are facing when they are looking for a job, including reasons for separation from prior employment, expectations for future jobs, and the biggest challenges to re-employment.
While CBER has tracked employment trends for decades through forecasts, business sentiment surveys, and labor force participation studies, this report fills a longstanding gap by asking unemployed individuals directly their experience in the job market and the barriers they face in finding a job.
“Understanding the experiences of job seekers, particularly those who are long-term unemployed or underemployed – and not just employers – is essential to understanding the dynamics of the labor market,” said CBER director Andrew Woods.
According to Woods, this survey – which began in 2022 – is intended to help state and local workforce partners, businesses, and nonprofits refine their outreach practices in connecting job seekers with available jobs.
“Working with CBER on this survey provides valuable insight into the experiences, expectations, and needs of unemployed people in Nevada,” said David Schmidt, chief economist at the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation. “This is critical because national survey data does not always address some of the most pressing questions we face about how to provide the most effective support to individuals who are not currently connected through us. This research will help us better understand how we can connect workers with employers.”
Key Survey Findings
The Nevada Job Seeker Survey revealed that some of the top reasons for employee separation were involuntary layoffs, family obligations, and health concerns. Layoffs were more common among individuals with lower educational attainment. Women and parents, along with the recently unemployed, most frequently cited family responsibilities.
Though more than half of respondents (58.4%) expressed a desire to change industries – favoring transportation, hospitality, and administrative roles – these sectors are projected to grow at only half the rate of healthcare, the state’s fastest-growing field. Only 15.5% of job seekers selected healthcare as their preferred industry, pointing to a potential long-run structural misalignment.
According to survey data, re-employment barriers also vary by region within the state.
In Clark County, job seekers reported a lack of suitable opportunities. This is despite a record of strong regional job growth and suggests a mismatch between the preference of roles, skills and interests between job seekers and employers. In Washoe County, inadequate training and certification access topped the list, despite Reno ranking as one of the most highly educated cities in the nation. According to Woods, this highlights a potential skills gap relative to the available workforce and tech and manufacturing sectors expanding in the area.
In rural Nevada, where just 9.5 percent of the population lives across 86.9 percent of the state’s land mass, transportation was the most reported obstacle, highlighting the geographical gap between job location and housing.
About the Nevada Job Seeker Survey
For 50 years, CBER has conducted applied, data-driven research to assist Nevada’s businesses, governments, and communities. The center, located within UNLV’s Lee Business School, has conducted original research on labor force trends, employment, and workforce development to better understand Nevada’s complex economy and the workers and businesses that sustain it.
The Nevada Job Seeker Survey was sponsored by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation. The survey was administered online from August through November 2024 and targeted Nevadans ages 18 and older who were unemployed but seeking employment at the time of taking the survey.
The survey contained 32 questions and received 310 complete submissions. It had a 6 percent margin of error at a 95 percent confidence interval. The raw survey data were weighted by age, gender, and region to reflect the Nevada population.
Learn more about the survey, and CBER’s related work, at cber.unlv.edu.
