Nevada loses thousands of construction jobs, contractors’ association says

Nevada is losing thousands of construction jobs as tourism slows and economic uncertainty remains high, according to a new report.

Construction jobs were down 6.4 percent in Nevada (7,100 jobs) year over year through August, according to a report from The Associated General Contractors of America. This puts the state fifth in the country for overall construction jobs lost, with California leading the way as the state shed 16,900 jobs (a 1.9 percent drop), followed by New York (13,300 jobs and a 3.4 percent decline.

Nevada leads the country in a month-over-month decline in construction jobs from July to August, shedding 4,400 jobs for a 4.1 percent drop, beating out New York (3,800 jobs and a 1 percent decline) and Georgia (3,000 jobs and a 1.3 percent decline), according to the same report.

The contractors’ report comes on the heels of another report that found the Las Vegas Valley shed 4,300 jobs from July to August, according to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. David Schmidt, the department’s chief economist, said Thursday that private-sector employment in Nevada fell by 6,000 jobs from July to August, led by “statistically significant declines” in construction and the accommodation and food services sector.

Ken Simonson, chief economist for The Associated General Contractors of America, said the Las Vegas Valley’s commercial and residential construction industries are feeling the impact of a slowing local economy due to a number of factors, including a decline in tourism, economic uncertainty caused by tariffs, increased construction and labor costs, plus increased materials costs and elevated interest rates.

Simonson said construction jobs are disappearing in the Las Vegas Valley and across the state of Nevada given the current market conditions and climate at play in 2025.

“Clearly things have gotten much worse than they had been two years ago which was really the peak for construction employment in Las Vegas, which accounts for the bulk of the state’s employment change, and in general the country has been slowing down in terms of construction gains and has just slipped below the level of gains of all industries,” he said.

Simonson said the drop is largely due to a slowdown in homebuilding, however he said the commercial side is also starting to slow as well.

“Construction had been growing very strongly but now it has turned around mainly because of a drop in homebuilding, but this year we have seen more and more non-residential projects put on hold as owners wonder what kind of costs are they going to face from tariffs, what will the impact be of retaliatory actions by other countries,” he said.

Simonson said one of the reasons for the drop in construction in the valley is the Trump administration’s stance on a number of key issues that have trickled down to the local economy. He said a lack of international visitors has clearly dampened the region’s economy in 2025.

“A lot of businesses in Las Vegas depend on having a high level of foreign visitors as well as domestic and we’ve seen visitor counts drop off a great deal since president Trump has taken such a hostile attitude both on trade and immigration,” he said.

Nevada relies heavily on foreign born workers as the report notes immigrants (legal status not clarified) make up approximately 48 percent of the construction industry’s workforce, one of the highest levels in the country behind California (52 percent) and Texas (51 percent).

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.