Flattened job growth in Las Vegas seen in Brookings quarterly report

The Brookings MetroMonitor, a quarterly economic gauge released by the Brookings Institution in Washington, showed no net job formation here from June to September. That placed Las Vegas at No. 71 out of the nation’s 100 biggest cities for job formation, the report said.

The city’s jobs base grew 0.4 percent in the second quarter and 0.5 percent in the first quarter, good for Nos. 39 and 28 respectively.

The hiring stumble came even as other indicators, including gross metropolitan product, unemployment and the number of bank-owned properties, pointed positive for Las Vegas.

Mark Muro, a senior fellow and policy director with Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program, cited two potential factors slowing job growth in the third quarter.

First, cities with steadier recoveries have more diverse economies, with higher concentrations of education, health care, technology and manufacturing.

"The relatively thinner, more one-dimensional nature of the present economies in Nevada and Las Vegas simply leaves you fewer opportunities to participate in growth where it’s occurring," Muro said.

But the quarter also saw a federal budget crisis and the start of fiscal collapse in Europe, Muro noted.

Those factors hurt consumer confidence, and Las Vegas’ retail- and tourism-oriented economy needs consumers to feel good about spending.

It could take years to answer the first issue, but state officials say they’re working on it.

Brookings co-published a November study on economic diversification in Nevada.

The 178-page report called for building on already strong sectors such as tourism and mining, as well as luring businesses in aerospace and defense, information technology, health, logistics and distribution, and clean energy.

Steve Hill, director of Nevada’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development, said his agency is meeting with businesspeople, trade groups and economic development entities statewide to formulate ways to implement Brookings’ suggestions.

"Many of the sectors of the economy that we are targeting grew even during the recession, so focusing on areas that will grow as we look to diversify is important," Hill said. "Diversification provides balance over time so that dislocations in the economy don’t disproportionately affect us."

Hill said he expects to have a diversification plan published around Feb. 1.

As for consumer confidence, recent reports show an uptick in sentiment, Muro said.

Plus, retail spending was up on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and November’s national jobs report showed strong hiring in retail and restaurants.

The fourth quarter could bring better news for hiring in Las Vegas, Muro said.

In other Brookings indicators, Las Vegas’ gross metropolitan product grew 0.6 percent in the third quarter, the 37th-best performance in the nation.

Unemployment dropped a nation-leading 2 percentage points year over year, to 13.6 percent, from a combination of a shrinking labor force and jobs growth in leisure and hospitality.

Las Vegas also topped the 100 biggest cities for the rate at which it chewed through its bank-owned homes, though the city continues to have the highest share of bank-owned homes per 1,000 mortgageable properties.

Across the Intermountain West, the Brookings report noted that Las Vegas and Boise, Idaho, both among the hardest-hit cities, show signs of a "relatively robust and sustained recovery" by the quarter’s end.

Cities leading the region in recovery are Ogden, Utah; Albuquerque, N.M.; Provo, Utah; and Phoenix.

Tucson, Ariz., and Colorado Springs, Colo., were "still struggling to appreciably turn around," the study said.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@ reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.