Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/04/2010 -- Nevada’s unemployment rate, which at 14.2 percent in June was already the country’s highest, is unlikely to go down and in fact could go up to 14.7 percent by the fourth quarter of 2010. This analysis of the economic situation was released by Jered McDonald who is an economist for the state’s Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation.

McDonald’s comments came following a meeting of the Employment Security Council which was debating whether to raise taxes on businesses to pay for the state’s unemployment trust fund. He also said that the situation was unlikely to improve till 2012, with unemployment probably remaining above 10 percent till 2014.

Nevada currently has 193,000 unemployed, and this is just the people who have registered for unemployment benefits. The bleak forecast for the job sector came in part due to concerns over the lack of growth in the gaming and construction sector, which is concentrated in Las Vegas. Las Vegas also has the nation’s highest unemployment rate for a metro area.

However, Harrison Barnes, CEO of Hound, a leading job search engine is still optimistic about the situation. It’s not as if the Nevada economy has completely ground to a halt and no one is hiring” says Harrison. “There are jobs in Las Vegas as well as in the other Nevada counties.” In spite of the job losses across the board, Hound was able to post a good 3,800 jobs this week across the state, in which Las Vegas had over 2,100 jobs.