Southern Nevada’s economy has recovered strongly, with stimulus money and pent-up demand for leisure and travel helping to fuel a record period of revenue and sweepstakes along the Strip Corridor.
With housing costs skyrocketing, a labor market that hasn’t fully recovered since the 2020 COVID-19 shutdowns, and federal stimulus funds that will eventually dry up, there are many concerns about southern Nevada’s long-term prospects.
The federal stimulus money has not only helped boost Nevada’s tourism and leisure economy, but has brought it to an unprecedented level. Gaming earnings of $ 3.46 billion from March through June were the highest ever in a quarter in Nevada.
“We have spent our journey to prosperity,” said Jeremy Agüero, senior analyst at Applied Analysis, during a presentation Friday at the 41st annual Las Vegas Perspective event hosted by the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance.
That money and continued demand will likely help sustain the economy through 2022, Aguero said. He asked: What happens when the money runs out?
“Our response policy is creating a major economic cliff,” said Agüero. “At some point the bill will be due.”
Nevada – especially the Las Vegas Valley – was hit hard by the economic crisis due to its tourism and leisure economy. The unemployment rate in Las Vegas was over 33 percent in April 2020. That number has shrunk to about 9.5 percent by June this year, but Aguero said more than 100,000 jobs have not returned yet.
As after the Great Recession, eyes are turning to economic diversity, possibly to mitigate the blow of further economic slowdown. But Aguero noted that some factors in the valley itself could make this difficult.
“We are running out of industrial space and that will affect our ability to diversify as an economy as a whole,” said Agüero.
In addition to Agüero, Bo Bernhard, Vice President for Economic Development at UNLV, and Erica Orange, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of The Future Hunters, also made presentations at the event.
Bernhard sees many opportunities for Las Vegas to diversify its workforce, starting with the home university.
He made particular reference to the 122-acre UNLV Harry Reid Research and Technology Park in the south-west of the valley, which serves as an incubator to attract startups and tech companies and to stimulate business development and economic growth.
“What we are building out there on around 100 hectares is a long-lasting innovation ecosystem that was built as cavalry and that is helping to renew our way out of this special historical moment,” said Bernhard.
Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.
