Depressing new job loss figures released Friday by the government show that after years of exceeding national trends, Nevada has fallen back in line.

Though new state numbers will be released Monday, Jim Shabi, economist for the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, expects Nevada’s trends of the last two years to continue.

Those trends, he said, show greatly slowed overall growth created by extremes in different industries. For about a year and a half, he said, Nevada job growth has been slowing and dipped below 1 percent at the end of 2007. Statewide job growth had been running at between 2 and 4 percent growth during housing boom years, Shabi said.

The housing market has been the biggest factor in statewide growth and decline, Shabi said. Going into Monday’s revision, the numbers prior to December 2007 benchmark revisions show that the Reno-Sparks area lost 2,700 constructions jobs between December 2005 and December 2007 — a 15.5 percent job loss in that industry, Shabi said.

Besides construction, Shabi added, the only other major industry to suffer a loss of job growth has been the financial activities sector, which includes the mortgage and real esate professions.

“We were running far head of national rate and now we’ve come down to it,” he said of Nevada’s housing decline. “Because we had more of a boom than most states we’ve had a bit more of a bust.”

The losses are offset by 3.8 percent overall growth in the same two-year period. Growth sectors in the Reno-Sparks area include manufacturing (900 new jobs, 6 percent growth); trade, transportation and utilites, which inclues retail (3,500 new jobs, 7.5 percent growth).

Shabi said construction of the new Summit Mall and the new retail developments in Spanish Springs have contributed to the growth in the retail sector.

Hospitality, which includes hotel restaurants, have grown in the Reno-Sparks area by 2,300 jobs even though no new casinos have been built.

Though the numbers might change with Monday’s revision, Shabi said, “It's safe to say trends will hold and the new numbers will be consistent with trends shown here.”

To illustrate recent trends, Shabi said 2004 total job growth in the Reno area was 4.2 percent; in 2005 it was 3.3 percent; and by the end of 2007 it was down to less than 1 percent growth. The same trends are visible statewide, he said.

On the national front, employers' payrolls shrunk by 63,000 jobs last month. Manufacturing lost 52,000 jobs, construction lost 39,000 and retail was down 20,000. These numbers were only partially offset by increased hiring by government, education and health services and leisure and hospitality businesses.

National numbers for February translate to 0.6 percent job growth over last 12 months, Shabi said.

“So (Nevada is) in line with the national average where we have traditionally been running way ahead,” he said.