Las Vegas’ job growth surpassed the national average early this year, but wage increases in Southern Nevada lagged most of the country, a new report shows.
Total employment in Clark County was up 1.6 percent year-over-year in March, compared with a 0.1 percent bump nationwide. However, average weekly wages locally in the first quarter were up 1.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 3.9 percent increase nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Overall, Clark County’s pace of job growth was tied for 22nd among the nearly 380 counties tracked for the report – and its pace of wage growth was tied for 339th, the bureau reported Friday.
Brian Gordon, a principal with Las Vegas consulting firm Applied Analysis, said his group has gathered data from the bureau that shows higher wage hikes in Southern Nevada this year than what the agency just reported.
He described Las Vegas’ job market as relatively strong with real income growth.
On the surface, the new report from the bureau indicates that employers in America’s casino capital added jobs at an above-average pace over the year-long period but gave smaller-than-average boosts in pay — a mixed bag for the region as workers locally and nationally grapple with high everyday costs and often find it maddeningly difficult to land a new job.
Las Vegas consultant John Restrepo, owner of RCG Economics, said the gap between Clark County’s job growth and wage growth is due to the composition of the workforce.
Southern Nevada’s leisure and hospitality sector dominates the local labor market. According to Restrepo, when a big share of new hiring occurs in tourism and logistics rather than in higher-paying industries, job growth “can appear strong” even if salary growth trails the country overall.
“None of this implies that workers here are worse off in absolute terms,” he added. “It reflects the kind of occupations being added, not how well individual workers are compensated.”
All told, tourism levels in Las Vegas have improved this year from the noticeable drop-off in 2025, but personal finances have also been squeezed by higher gas prices and elevated inflation.
Andrew Woods, director of UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, also chalked up the discrepancy between Las Vegas’ job growth and wage growth in the new report to the types of jobs being added in Southern Nevada.
He said that the top three industries adding jobs in Clark County have been healthcare, professional and business services, and construction, and that many of the in-demand jobs in those sectors “are likely on the lower end of the income range” such as home health aides, temp workers, and general laborers.
Plus, when several years of elevated inflation are factored in, it means that many workers in the middle- and lower-end of the income range “are struggling to keep up with the increase in prices,” he said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
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