Las Vegas’ job market has recovered losses from pandemic
The Las Vegas Valley has recovered all of the jobs — and more — it lost during the pandemic.
The valley saw some of the sharpest employment declines in the country during the start of COVID-19 public health crisis in 2020, and has since experienced one of the biggest recoveries, according to a new study from the National Association of Home Builders.
The association, which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data, reported that the Las Vegas area lost 277,900 jobs in 2020, which equated to about 26 percent of the local workforce. As of August of this year, the valley had reached 109 percent of its pre-pandemic employment, the study found.
Southern Nevada’s casino-heavy economy was devastated by the pandemic. The region’s main economic engine, tourism, screeched to a halt at the onset of the crisis, and the Strip became a ghost town of shuttered resorts for a while.
Las Vegas’ unemployment rate in February 2020 was around 4 percent, but it skyrocketed to 34 percent in April 2020, the first full month of the pandemic shutdowns.
As of this past August, the local jobless rate was 5.6 percent, federal data shows.
To date, 93 of the biggest 393 metro regions in the country still have not recovered their job losses from the pandemic, the study found.
“While the national labor market suffered an unprecedented collapse in both speed and depth, the effects varied significantly across U.S. metro areas,” the report said. “Local economies experience dramatically different outcomes depending on their industrial composition, the feasibility of remote work, and the strictness of local public health restrictions.”
Las Vegas mortgage broker Hector Amendola said that even though the valley’s job market has recovered from the pandemic, its housing market hasn’t.
As he described it, residential real estate is still reeling from the rollercoaster ride of the COVID years, when rock-bottom mortgage rates fueled a homebuying spree locally and nationally.
The median sales price for a house in the valley is still close to record highs, and mortgage rates have been declining but are still elevated.
The result: Many would-be buyers still can’t afford a place.
“Even with the Fed cutting interest rates, mortgage rates as low as they’ve been in a while, and builder incentives for new homes, average-income Americans still see a new home as unattainable,” said Amendola, president of Panorama Mortgage Group.
Many Americans are delaying home purchases due to financial reasons, while a portion of potential sellers are staying put, because they don’t want to give up the low mortgage rates they landed during the pandemic.
Las Vegas’ homebuilding market has also pumped the brakes this year, and Amendola sees the overall pullback in housing as a warning sign for the overall economy.
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.
