“I knew people were suffering and we were trying everything we could do to help them as quickly as we can and we felt like we're fighting … a civil war at the same time,” Gaa said.

Officials say the unemployment claims backlog is now as bad as at points earlier in the pandemic, as the state grapples with a drastically reduced unemployment workforce amid a dry-up of federal funding. 

Roughly 2,100 people attended the 'JobFest' to check out the 16,700 job openings and available community resources, and 251 attendees were hired on the spot, according to initial reports from employers.

With nearly as many job openings as there are unemployed people, experts say it’s not so much a lack of available positions, but mismatches between job seekers’ experiences and the needs of employers.

In September, Nevada’s headline unemployment rate declined slightly from the past two months, falling from 7.7 percent to 7.5 percent — a mark that ranked last among all 50 states for the third straight month.