Evergreen Recycling announced that they have created over 60 new green jobs in Las Vegas that have been funded by the stimulus dollars.  Evergreen collects and sorts trash from casinos and construction sites, recycling everything from drywall to carpet and glass to metal.

“The net impact is positive from an environmental standpoint and from an economic impact. These are jobs are permanent because there are always materials coming out the door of commercial properties and there will always be a need for people to collect, sort and ship them to market,” said Rob Dorinson with Evergreen.

The Department of Labor announced in January that DETR was awarded a $6 million grant aimed at creating green jobs in Nevada. The state hopes to train and fill over 6,000 green jobs from the funding. 

A wind turbine plant will open in Henderson, Nevada creating over 1,000 new green jobs in Las Vegas.  The announcement was made by U.S. Renewable Energy Group, Chinese manufacturer A-Power Energy Generation Systems and Southern Nevada developer American Nevada Company. 

The plant is expected to open by the end of 2011 adding to Nevada’s goal of becoming the leading state for renewable energy.  With Las Vegas’ unemployment level at a record high, this new job creation can not come soon enough.

More information about the job creation can be found here.

Las Vegas will be the recipient of about 200 new jobs in the near future.  Foliot Furniture, a furniture company based in Montreal, Canada, announced it was opening a 390,000 square foot warehouse at the end of May. Most of the 200 new Las Vegas jobs will be filled between March and April.  Foliot Furniture will officially open on May 31, 2010.

The company makes hospitality, residence hall and military furniture.  Executives said it was attracted to Las Vegas in part because of Nevada’s tax structure. Nevada has no personal income tax and no corporate tax making it a welcome environment for expansion. Foliot chose Las Vegas over Phoenix and Los Angeles.

“The people here were very proactive in helping us find a place and working very hard with us for grants,” said Daniel Foliot, President of Foliot Furniture. 

Cord Blood America, previously a California company, has relocated to Las Vegas, NV and currently employs 25 with plans to create 50 more medical jobs in Las Vegas. 

Its new office will be located at 1857 Helm Drive and will feature a laboratory for storage of stem cell products.  The company stores umbilical cord blood from newborn babies.  The blood can be used in the future to treat cancer, leukemia and other blood and immunity disorders.

Company officials claim that they may become the nation’s largest cryogenic storage center and stem-cell lab.  This is big news for Las Vegas and Nevada as we continue to add new research jobs in healthcare.  Others such as Nevada Cancer Institute and Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health  continue to add new jobs for healthcare professionals. 

A few hundred new Nevada green jobs will be created when solar panel manufacturer Amonix opens in the Southern region.  A recent press release stated that 269 clean energy manufacturing jobs will be created when Amonix builds its new $5.9 million plant with federal economic recovery stimulus funding.

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley stated “We are working to make Nevada a world leader in the use and production of solar energy and this $5.9 million awarded to Amonix under the Recovery Act will soon mean green job creation right here in the Silver State.”

By Buck Wargo 

Although the state’s jobless rate hovers at 13 percent and many workers are losing jobs, health care employment in Las Vegas has bucked that trend  just as it has across the nation.

Toward the end of 2009, Las Vegas had 69,700 health care workers, up 3.4 percent or 2,300 jobs from a year earlier, said Brian Gordon, principal at research firm Applied Analysis.

“They have outperformed other sectors of the economy regardless of the economic climate. People still demand health care-related services,” Gordon said. “Given the fact that the population continues to age, that segment of the population will continue to demand medical-related services.”

By the firm’s count, in 2008 Nevada had 25.5 health care workers per 1,000 people, well below the average 35.7 workers per 1,000 people across the nation. That opens the door to more growth in Las Vegas.

The valley is in a good position for growth in health care jobs because it has the Nevada Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which will bring in additional researchers and medical workers, Gordon said.

Nevada’s Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Chief Economist Bill Anderson said the health care sector has held up “relatively well compared to the economy as a whole during this downturn.” Once the books are closed on 2009, health care jobs are likely to have increased by 1.1 percent compared with a 9.5 percent job loss overall, he said.

The growth in medical jobs in Las Vegas has slowed in the last couple of years, said Anderson, who expects employment in the sector to grow at 1 percent to 2 percent for the next two years.

“It has definitely eased from where it was during the boom years,” Anderson said. “Health care is very much population and demographic driven. As population has grown over time, that has allowed the health sector to weather the downturn better.”

What’s happening in Las Vegas has been happening in the rest of the country.

Nationally, construction has lost 21 percent of its jobs from December 2007 to last December. Manufacturing lost 15 percent of its jobs, and business and financial services have lost 6 percent to 7 percent of their jobs in that time. Health care employment, however, has risen 5 percent.

“The health care industry is critical to a region’s economic development because it is relatively recession resistant,” said John Restrepo, principal of Restrepo Consulting Group. “And, health care employees are generally better trained and earn above-average wages.”

In 2009’s second quarter, the average weekly wage of health care workers was $957 compared with the overall job market of $793. That’s a 21 percent premium over the rest of the economy because health care workers are generally higher-trained people, and there is more demand because there is a shortage, Restrepo said.

“The health care industry is not sexy like the green jobs or biotech, but it is a core industry that you need to pay good wages,” Restrepo said.

Charles Perry, Nevada Health Care Association executive director, said health care employment has held steady because it is such a crucial profession and because it’s funded by either insurance or government programs.

But Perry said jobs are threatened because of state budget problems. Under Gov. Jim Gibbons proposal, a $10 per patient per day reduction for skilled nursing services would be sought. The state pays $12.27 less than what it costs to provide the service, he said.

“Seventy percent of the cost in running skilled nursing is patient care, and that absolutely means cutting staff,” Perry said. “But it doesn’t stop with us. Folks that operate acute-care facilities are looking at a 5 percent (cut) in addition to the 5 percent cut they took last year. Every segment of the health care delivery system in Nevada that depends on Medicaid for any portion of its revenue is going to take it in the shorts so to speak. It could have a heck of a long-term impact (on jobs).”

Frank Bellinger, Horizon Specialty Hospital CEO, said health care employment remains a solid career choice because workers can’t be replaced with robots and a shortage of licensed nurses remains.

Bellinger said he expects employment to hold steady with no large increases or cutbacks, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems for the profession. Pay increases had been 4 percent during the good economy, but that has slowed to 2 percent to 3 percent, he said.

“For the first time in my career, our company told us we are not going to get cost-of-living increases and I am sure we are not alone,” Bellinger said.

Dr. Harry Rosenberg, University of Southern Nevada president, said health care employment has been affected by the economy and Wall Street in particular.

Some pharmacists at the chain drugstores have postponed retirement because they lost a lot of money in investments. Their decision has slowed the demand for pharmacists.

Dr. Carolyn Yucha, UNLV School of Nursing dean, said the recession has affected veteran nurses as well by forcing some to move to full-time positions or delay their retirement because household income is down. One reason may be someone in the home lost his job, she said.

“It is more difficult for new graduates to get a job,” Yucha said. “They haven’t been immune to this.”

For the 16-month program that starts this summer, 70 people have applied for 48 spots, she said. In the fall, 900 students entered the prenursing program.

“They believe this is the place they can get a job, and when the recession goes away we will need them,” Yucha said.

The unknown for the industry is what happens with federal health care reform because it will shape future employment if more

people are given access to health care, Rosenberg said. That means creating additional jobs.

Las Vegas –  Nevada Cancer Institute (NVCI), workforceCONNECTIONS and the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) have been awarded 3.2 million dollars to partner and implement a new program designed to train nurses and allied health care professionals on cancer treatments and research. The Plus One Program will help transition CSN graduates from nursing, medical laboratory technology, radiation technology and health information technology programs into highly specialized full-time jobs in health care. The grant, made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), is expected to create over 100 healthcare jobs in Nevada.

“This is a great opportunity, not only for Nevada Cancer Institute, but the community at-large” said John C. Ruckdeschel, M.D., NVCI Director and CEO, who also holds the Murren Family Distinguished Director’s Chair. “The fact that Nevada Cancer Institute, with the help of our partners, can support, train and then employ new health care professionals here in our own state, will greatly benefit our economy, those needing jobs and especially, the cancer patient.”

Each partner will bring a unique element of the program to life. NVCI will serve as a hub for the Plus One Program, providing participants with preparation for national certification, clinical supervision, and paid positions in oncology nursing and allied health. workforceCONNECTIONS’ service providers will provide transportation assistance, clothing, food, child care, and other supportive services and CSN will expand their programs to recruit students who will receive scholarships and entry-level oncology related work experience. Workers from the Plus One Program will garner higher wages, experience upward job mobility and qualify for jobs in high demand areas of healthcare.

With a new research building open and continued growth, including an innovative partnership with the county hospital to provide cancer care in a second outpatient location, NVCI is looking to quickly increase its number of nurses with specific competencies needed in cancer treatment and train more laboratory technicians. These specialized jobs have the potential to pay increased wages, provide excellent fringe benefits and support articulated career ladders within the field of oncology.

ELKO — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved Barrick Gold Corp.’s plans to expand the Bald Mountain Mine in White Pine County roughly 70 miles south of Elko.  This expansion will create over 130 new mining jobs in Nevada.

The BLM’s approval comes in time for mining to continue and the expansion to begin. The mine would have run out of permitted disturbance space in mid-year without the OK to expand operations.

“It was a good project to work on, and we think we ended up with a good final decision,” said the Ely BLM’s Egan Field Office manager, Jeffrey Weeks, who signed the record of decision. “I’m glad we could finally bring this to a close. I know it was important to them and to a lot of folks that work there.”

The workforce was at 185 people in late January, but Bald Mountain expects to add 50 more people this year and 60 to 80 more in the following two or three years as mining expands, according to General Manager Dave McClure.

“The BLM’s approval of this project is great news for White Pine and Elko counties and for our employees at Bald Mountain. This expansion will sustain more than 200 mining jobs, while adding about a decade to the mine life at Bald Mountain,” Lou Schack, director of communications and community affairs for Barrick Gold of North America, said Wednesday.

Most workers live in Elko, Spring Creek, Ely and Eureka.

The permit allows Bald Mountain to expand current open pits, expand leach pads and new waste dumps, construct a new shop, expand exploration activities and combine mine plans for the Mooney Basin area and the Bald Mountain site into one plan.

“The mine will continue to generate much needed tax revenues in rural Nevada, and we look forward to many additional years of production at Bald Mountain,” Barrick Gold of North America President Greg Lang said Wednesday.

He said Barrick will spend roughly $200 million on the expansion project over the next five years.

The record of decision states that Barrick’s reclamation bond for all of Bald Mountain Mine will be nearly $47.4 million, and the BLM decision calls for the preferred alternative analyzed in the environmental impact statement for partial backfilling of open pits.

According to the BLM, the proposed action would disturb 3,920 additional acres for a total disturbance of 8,080 acres of public land at Bald Mountain.

One company is actually looking for people to fill available Reno jobs (Click here).

New York Life, an insurance company, is planning to hire about 300 agents during the next year and about 30 of those positions will be located at the company’s office in Reno.

“We invest in our employees to ensure they are successful,” Lawrence Carter, who works with the company, told KTVN. “We pay to license them and get them going.”

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More jobs were lost last month while the Reno unemployment rate continued to increase.

During July, the Reno-Sparks area saw its unemployment rate increase from 11.8 percent to 12.2 percent. This is higher than the unemployment rate of 6.7 percent the area saw last year and higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent. The area has not seen a decrease in unemployment since April, when the rate went from 11.2 percent to 11 percent.

The area had a total non-farm employment of 197,400 workers during July, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 200,100 workers during June and an 8.4 percent decrease from last year.

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