Summary of Federal Employment in Nevada

This report uses data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Labor to look at both overall levels of federal employment in Nevada and to look at claims for unemployment insurance from federal workers in Nevada, as well as providing resources to individuals about such claims.

The largest federal departments with workers in Nevada as of the fourth quarter of 2024 were:

  1. Department of Veterans Affairs (6,321)

  2. US Postal Service (4,766)

  3. Department of Defense (2,918)

  4. Homeland Security (2,158)

  5. Department of the Interior (2,056)

Concentration of Federal Employment by County

Data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages allows us to look at the counties in Nevada with the largest concentrations of federal workers. This does not include active duty military personnel, but does include civilian employment at military bases, so Churchill County, home of the Naval Air Station Fallon and Mineral County, home of the Hawthorne Army Depot have above-average concentrations of federal employees, each among the 250 counties in the nation with the highest concentrations of federal workers.

In all, 11 of Nevada’s 17 counties have a higher concentration of federal workers than the typical county, and 6 of these have higher concentrations than the overall national share of federal employment to all workers.

Area Title Total Federal Federal Share National Rank County Weekly Wage Federal Weekly Wage
Churchill County, Nevada 8,866 562 6.34% 166 $1,232 $1,274
Mineral County, Nevada 1,126 56 4.97% 240 $1,010 $1,499
Unknown Or Undefined, Nevada 31,711 1,071 3.38% 375 $2,066 $2,290
Lincoln County, Nevada 1,340 41 3.06% 419 $950 $1,270
White Pine County, Nevada 4,268 126 2.95% 440 $1,634 $1,402
Humboldt County, Nevada 7,616 139 1.82% 790 $1,516 $1,480
Carson City, Nevada 31,824 568 1.78% 814 $1,355 $1,690
Washoe County, Nevada 236,830 4,083 1.72% 856 $1,382 $2,088
Lander County, Nevada 3,636 62 1.70% 880 $2,290 $1,442
Elko County, Nevada 21,829 318 1.46% 1,069 $1,281 $1,750
Clark County, Nevada 1,114,624 15,022 1.35% 1,160 $1,322 $1,907
Esmeralda County, Nevada 271 3 1.11% 1,447 $1,335 $604
Nye County, Nevada 13,405 133 0.99% 1,647 $1,428 $1,371
Pershing County, Nevada 1,996 16 0.78% 2,115 $1,804 $1,196
Lyon County, Nevada 13,373 77 0.58% 2,700 $1,099 $1,183
Douglas County, Nevada 20,488 108 0.53% 2,834 $1,482 $1,932
Eureka County, Nevada 4,370 1 0.03% 3,269 $2,769 $2,042
Storey County, Nevada 20,085 2 0.01% 3,270 $1,589 $1,861
Red highlighted cells where federal share of employment exceeds national average
Blue highlighted cells where federal share of employment exceeds national median

Unemployment Insurance Activity for Federal Workers

Unemployment insurance is available to federal workers as it is to other unemployed workers. These claims are handled by a parallel program, Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE). Tracking these claims can give us an idea about layoffs and unemployment for former federal workers. However, if an individual has wages from both private and federal sources, these claims would be tracked under the regular UI program, not UCFE, so UCFE claims should be considered only a subset of all potential federal claims.

Initial claims reflect an application for benefits, and are most closely tied to layoffs or job loss, while weekly claims represent the process of filing for benefits for a particular week, and are most closely tied to the number of people unemployed for a particular week. The report week is the week in which a claim is reported, usually for claims that happened in the prior week, reflecting labor market activity the week before that. So the data for report week 2/22/2025 reflects claims filed in the week from 2/9/25 to 2/15/25, which reflects unemployment or job separations in the week prior to 2/9/2025.

Data source: https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/csv/ar539.csv

Report Week Jul-12 Jul-19 Jul-26 Aug-02 Aug-09 Aug-16 Aug-23 Aug-30 Sep-06 Sep-13 Sep-20 Sep-27 Oct-04 Oct-11
Initial 2 2 2 4 0 3 1 0 1 1 2 2 2 9
Weekly 25 31 40 39 40 40 40 42 40 42 41 45 45 50
Report Week Jul-12 Jul-19 Jul-26 Aug-02 Aug-09 Aug-16 Aug-23 Aug-30 Sep-06 Sep-13 Sep-20 Sep-27 Oct-04 Oct-11
Initial 789 722 708 637 635 588 515 527 572 635 530 588 3,272 7,287
Weekly 7,226 7,407 7,831 8,193 8,237 8,456 8,128 8,211 7,863 8,168 8,223 8,459 8,672 9,988

Line and ribbon chart showing Nevada's initial unemployment claims relative to the 20th–80th percentile range of all states. The navy line represents Nevada’s index, and the grey shaded area shows the range across states.

Line and ribbon chart showing Nevada's weekly unemployment claims relative to the 20th–80th percentile range of all states. The navy line represents Nevada’s index, and the grey shaded area shows the range across states.

Choropleth map of the United States showing initial unemployment claims from federal workers by state for the most recent reporting week, compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. States shaded in purple have higher relative claims, states in green have lower claims, and light grey areas are near the 4Q 2024 average (index = 100).

Choropleth map of the United States showing weekly unemployment claims from federal workers by state for the most recent reporting week, compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. States shaded in purple have higher relative claims, states in green have lower claims, and light grey areas are near the 4Q 2024 average (index = 100).

Information about Unemployment Claims for Federal Workers

For information about unemployment compensation for federal workers, please refer to the UCFE Fact Sheet provided by the U.S. Department of Labor.

For information about how various states interpret eligibility rules about eligibility for benefits based on cause of separation, please refer to the Comparison of State Unemployment Insurance Laws, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, in particular the section on Nonmonetary Elibibility, which outlines provisions surrounding involuntary separations beginning on page 5-10. This adds a general note on eligibility as follows: *Historical Note: In determining what constitutes misconduct, many states rely on the definition established in the 1941 Wisconsin Supreme Court Case, Boynton Cab Co. v. Neubeck, 237 Wis. 249, 296 N.W. 636 (1941): b