As clouds continued to gather over northern Nevada Friday, Daryl Bodick zipped up his fleece jacket and led a group of 15 unemployed men and women through the streets of downtown Reno.

Bodick, who has been unemployed for almost a year now, said he was frustrated and just felt he needed to do something.

The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation recently predicted that the state’s unemployment rate could top 11 percent by the 2010.

Right now, the state agencies report that 9.1 percent of Nevadans are out of work.

The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics announced Jan. 29 that Nevada’s unemployment rate had risen 3.9 percent since December 2007, the third largest increase in the country.

Those gathered at the protest march came from various backgrounds, including construction and retail.

“To me our job here today is getting jobs,” Bodick said.

The protest organizer has worked in fields ranging from carpentry to chimney sweeping and ski teaching to political campaign work. Bodick was most recently a butcher at the former Wild Oats grocery store on Virginia Street. Wild Oats was bought out by Whole Foods in February 2007 and the Reno Whole Foods opened in June 2008.

“What jobs I have been able to pick up have been short term,” Bodick said.

Marching along with the group Friday were Randy Pethtel and Mike Stocklas, former construction workers and business partners.

In a slumping building market, Pethtel has not been able to find work for three months. He and Stocklas formerly worked together, both as builders and budding entrepreneurs.

“I’ve been working construction for about 30 years,” Pethtel said, adding that his career has been almost entirely in northern Nevada.

“I can’t draw on unemployment either,” he said. “That makes it really tough.”

Pethtel and Stocklas said that they have been frequenting job fairs and even tried starting their own repossession business. However, they were forced to shut down the Reno business because they could not afford a $1,500 license from the state Attorney General for those in the repossession business.

“We went to the city and got our business license and everything,” Pethtel said.

The company employed five people, including the two former construction workers.

At a forecast forum sponsored by the Builders Association of Northern Nevada on Jan. 16, experts said new home sales and building permits dropped 45 percent in 2008 from the year before, when they hit a 10-year low.

Friday’s march of the jobless started at Archie’s restaurant on North Virginia Street, near its intersection with Sierra Street, and ended at the Wingfield Park amphitheater. The procession, which started with 13 members, picked up two more unemployed people as it wound through the streets of downtown Reno.

Although some of those marching had suggestions for their state lawmakers, many just wanted a job.

“Without a job you cannot pay for health care or child care (or other services),” Bodick said, adding that Washington D.C. politicians needed to focus on the jobless before other in-need groups.

As the protesters gathered at Archie’s, county commissioner Kitty Jung showed up to give her support.

“These people are not only the fabric of our community,” Jung said. “They are also the reason why we (as politicians) ran for office. These people keep us in tune with why we ran. They are the citizen activists.”

According to Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation chief, Larry Mosley, about 128,100 Nevadans are out of work and about 78,000 people are getting an average of $300 a week in unemployment benefits.