Why has Reno added more jobs than Las Vegas this year?

The Reno metro area has added more jobs on average this year than the Las Vegas metro area, according to new Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation data.

The average employment for the Las Vegas metro from January to August shows an increase of 3,200 jobs year-over-year compared to Reno which added approximately 3,238 jobs over the same time frame, said Brian Bonnenfant, project manager for the Center for Regional Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, who shared the data with the Las Vegas Review-Journal said.

Bonnenfant said this data is a “shocker” as the Las Vegas metro usually adds many more jobs than Reno per year.

“Vegas almost always leaves us in the dust by tens of thousands of new jobs per year,” he said.

The data highlights a marked slowdown for the valley’s economy driven mainly by a drop in tourism, which has contributed to slowdown in hiring.

David Schmidt, chief economist with DETR, said in early October that fewer people in Southern Nevada have been quitting their jobs and layoffs have been pushing higher.

Hiring has not fallen off a cliff, he said, but it has “leveled off.”

Employment in the Las Vegas area fell by 4,300 jobs from July to August, according to DETR. Also, Southern Nevada’s unemployment rate in August, 5.6 percent, was fourth highest in the nation among metro areas with at least 1 million people, federal officials reported.

Bonnenfant said a number of local and national issues are hitting the valley’s economy in an acute way this year. He said Americans have run out of savings and money they got through the American Rescue Plan Act during the pandemic and Trump’s tariffs have whipsawed the economy.

“It’s a perfect storm of the long-expected ending of a record economic upcycle,” he said. “And, finally, the psychological effect on household spending as they are endlessly exposed to doom and despair echo chambers via mainstream, non-mainstream, and social media.”

When it comes to Las Vegas, Bonnenfant said, an economy driven largely by tourism, when consumers get uneasy or don’t feel confident about their economic situation, the first thing they cut is things such as vacations.

“And, of course, when these conditions rear its ugly head, economies reliant on discretionary spending are impacted the most,” he added.

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.