The Clark County School District held a career fair with 200 open jobs, including teachers, substitutes, and transportation roles. The local unemployment rate was 7.1%, with over 73,000 job seekers. Several other upcoming job fairs were mentioned as opportunities for job seekers. Las Vegas' recovery from the recession has been slower than other cities due to its reliance on construction and hospitality industries that were hit hard, and because a majority of its workforce lacks college degrees.

1. CCSD career fair among several opportunities for valley job
seekers
The largest employer in Clark County held a career fair yesterday as part of several hiring events
open to the public. The 200 jobs posted by the Clark County School District on Monday included
teachers, substitutes, paraprofessionals, transportation and school police.
"There's always opportunities, even some that aren't advertised right now," said Wayne Williams, a
recruitment director for the School District.
Among the candidates was Ricardo Sandoval of Las Vegas who was eyeing a maintenance job with
the school district. Sandoval already works in construction full-time, but he doesn't have benefits.
Sandoval's mother, Maria, who has been working as a hotel housekeeper, needs to do lighter work
as she gets older and hopes to find that in food service. Sandoval's sister Eloisa works in food service
but is looking to go from part-time to full-time.
? CCSD career fair
Thursday, June 18, 9 a.m. to noon
Barbara and Hank Greenspun Junior High
140 N. Valle Verde Drive, Henderson
? Goodwill Job Fair
Friday, June 19 @ 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Centennial Hills YMCA
6601 N. Buffalo Drive, Las Vegas
? Las Vegas Career Fair

2. Tuesday, June 30, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Texas Station Casino
2101 Texas Star Ln., North Las Vegas
The number of available jobs in the Las Vegas metro area increased to 907,000 in April, according to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of jobs during the pre-recession peak was 936,400 in
December 2007. That same month, the unemployment rate was 4.9 percent locally.
In April 2015, the 7.1 percent unemployment in the Las Vegas metro area represented an estimated
73,625 job seekers out of work locally. One of them is Ramonte Armstrong, who has been looking for
six months without luck. His last job had been at an Amazon warehouse in Arizona, and he was
looking to make a change within custodial or food services and finish school while working.
The valley just seems to be slow altogether in recovering from the recession. Out of 51 metro areas
with more than a million residents, Las Vegas had the worst unemployment rate in April. In
comparison. The Phoenix metro area's unemployment rate was at 4.9 percent, and Salt Lake City at
3.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Factors that contributed to a slower recovery -- a workforce mostly without college degrees and jobs
concentrated largely in two industries that were hit hard.
"The recession hurt the Las Vegas economy across the board. The industries that were hit the most
were construction and then things that were in or related to hospitality. Things like even taxicabs
were hurt, although limousines were hurt even more," said Steven Brown, economics professor at
UNLV.
The number of Clark County construction jobs nearly halved from 116,448 in 2008 to 56,783 in

3. 2013. In addition, the hotel and gaming industry in Clark County in 2008 employed 167,646 people
compared to 157,487 in 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Brown also points to the majority of the workforce not having a college degree. Only 22 percent
earned a bachelor's degree or higher, according to the census estimate of Clark County residents
ages 25 and older compared to almost 30 percent in Phoenix's Maricopa County and 31 percent in
Salt Lake County.
So when will the number of jobs return to their pre-recession levels?
"Right now we're projecting about two years, not for gaming but for looking at overall employment
levels," Brown said. "We're looking at about two years because the economy has been accelerating.
If we look at numbers like total nonfarming employment, we'll see an acceleration of the Clark
County economy."
http://vegasinc.com/business/2015/jun/15/ccsd-hiring-job-fair-unemployment-low/