Oct. 19--The last time construction employment was this low in Nevada, MGM Mirage didn"t exist, Bellagio and The Venetian weren't open and the Las Vegas Beltway went from Pecos Road to Interstate 15.

From a jobs standpoint, it's almost as if the economic heyday of the late 1990s and early 2000s never happened. (Was Bobby Ewing in your shower this morning telling you it was all a dream? And if you don't know what we're talking about, then you weren't around either the last time construction employment was so low.)

Nevada has given back all of its boom-era construction jobs and then some, the state Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation reported Monday. The department's latest data show records of 13.3 percent joblessness statewide and 13.9 percent in Las Vegas in September, and the building sector leads the way in job loss. Contractors added 48,000 jobs statewide from 1997 to 2007, and they've shed 50,000 positions since the recession began in December 2007.

The leisure sector, at least, managed to hang on to more than half of its long-term job formation: Hospitality operators created 77,300 jobs from 1997 to 2007, and have cut 30,000 posts in the last two years. Year over year in September, the number of jobs in all categories fell by 76,500 statewide.

But Monday's news brought signs of life as well.

The 0.1 percentage-point gain in statewide joblessness was the smallest increase since March. Also, Nevada's employers added 11,000 jobs overall from August to September, for the best growth numbers since February 2007. Sectors that grew month-over-month include government, which added 9,800 jobs thanks partly to the start of a new school year, and professional business services such as accounting and law, which grew by 2,800 jobs.

Still, sectors including manufacturing, construction, hospitality and information technology continued to drop jobs from August to September. The number of unemployed reached 190,700 statewide and 141,000 in Las Vegas in September, and the state has lost so many jobs in recent years that even stabilization will mean sustained hard times for many residents.

"For the foreseeable future, we're going to be struggling," said Bill Anderson, chief economist for the employment department. "We do have a lot of ground to make up.