After a slight increase in November, Nevada County’s unemployment rate dropped nearly half-a-point in December. At two-point-eight percent, that’s also nearly a point down from a year ago. It’s the tenth-lowest among the state’s 58 counties. James Cox is the business services representative with the local office of the Alliance for Workforce Development. He says employment had a monthly increase of 940 jobs…

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Leisure and Hospitality, which includes hotels, restaurants, and tourism, had the biggest sector gain of 350 jobs. It was an 180-job increase for Retail Trade. And the mining, logging, and construction sector gained 90 jobs….

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Cox also notes a lot of job fairs here. That includes for the new Grass Valley Target store, which is scheduled to open in March. And there are upcoming hiring events for Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, as well as for the Alliance. Meanwhile, California saw job growth for the fifteenth consecutive month. The state’s jobless rate held steady, at four-point-one percent, equaling the February 2020 rate, which is the month before the pandemic occurred.