After months of declines, Nevada County’s unemployment rate closed out 2020 with a seasonal rise in December. The rate went up just over a-point, from November, to six-point-eight percent. EDD Labor Market Analyst, Sheila Stock, says it was mainly a combination of losing 250 construction jobs, with a lot of work in winter suspension. But the labor force also jumped by 970…

But Stock says there weren’t enough jobs available to offset the labor force spike. Meanwhile, the biggest job sector gains were, again, in Leisure and Hospitality, at 830, at least partly due to the start of the winter recreation season in the Truckee area…

But the pre-pandemic rate of a year ago was only two-point-nine percent. However, Nevada County still has the eighth-lowest unemployment rate among the 58 counties, another sign that the smaller, rural counties are not being hit as dramatically hard as in the larger, urban areas.