By Bryan Horwath
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LAS VEGAS (KTNV) – While the Las Vegas economy has recovered from the pandemic, challenges remain ahead.
According to the LVCVA, Las Vegas relies heavily on visitors, with nearly 40 million visitors last year.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it leaves the Las Vegas Valley vulnerable when economic downturns cause people to travel less.
On Wednesday, the director of the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research said there was still work to be done and there were still gaps that could mean problems in the future.
One of these gaps is the labor shortage.
During the center’s twice-yearly Outlook forum, Andrew Woods said about 47,000 Las Vegas workers never returned to work following the outbreak of the pandemic.
Hiring employees has become difficult for many companies, which also makes it difficult for companies to gain a foothold or expand.
“Especially if you want to build a more resilient community, your employees are important in terms of attracting, attracting and retaining employees,” Woods said. “We had a brain drain and we’ll never get that back, but it’s about looking to the future.”
A tight labor market will make it difficult for Las Vegas to develop a more diverse economy — one with more manufacturing, technology and healthcare jobs — in the years to come.
For now, the center determined that it would give the Las Vegas Valley a D+ grade in economic diversity.
Judging by the resources and guidelines that are in place now, Woods said the grade would likely only reach a C- by 2040.
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