The weather affecting unemployment

As this winter drew near, many people felt that their jobs were at risk. Not only were people in fear of losing their job because of the recession, but poor weather conditions were also having an effect.

Specifically in Nevada, the state's average unemployment is 13%, while the Las Vegas area unemployment increased rate to 13.8% in January. The increase in unemployment in Las Vegas has been mostly due to seasonal unemployment which is a part of frictional unemployment. At the same time retail employment was falling which one can also tie back to the recession as being its main cause. On the other hand, one could come to the conclusion that people did not want to work out in bad weather when there are more risks for getting sick, or in a car accident which could lead to retail employment decreasing.

Overall, the weather does have an effect on the unemployment rate. With construction workers and other seasonal job seekers not employed, the result is inevitably more unemployment. The recession alone causes unemployment; however with people sticking indoors with their fires and soup, the retail industry (specifically in Nevada) was also hit hard with unemployment this winter.