Part of that workforce creation has to do with the studio project’s location at UNLV, which has a film school, and the plan’s focus on training that is geared toward building the film and television workforce in Las Vegas.

Howard Hughes’ studio project would be a part of the planned community the firm began building in 1990. Like Wahlberg, workers could live in the community where they work.

That’s a critical piece of the puzzle, said Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV.

“The concern we have around film when we model this from a diversification standpoint is, are the jobs staying here?” Woods said.

“Because if the jobs are getting up and leaving — film is very mobile — there’s not really much benefit,” Woods said.

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From the valets parking cars to the dealers at the blackjack tables to the bartenders at the city’s many bars, Las Vegas relies on people working for tips.

“Las Vegas was built on tips,” said James Reza, a city native who owns two high-end beauty salons in town.

Around 17% of workers in Nevada—the highest concentration in the country—make their living through tipped work, according to the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Nationwide, tipped workers only account for about 2.5% of all workers, according to Yale’s Budget Lab.

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A recent example of this is the success of sports/entertainment investments. For example, the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV (2023) quantifies that sporting events in Las Vegas generated $1.845 billion in direct output only in the fiscal year 2022. This is why Las Vegas has been investing heavily in sports such as the teams in the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the United Soccer League – all added just in the last decade.

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Stephen Miller, research director at UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said he thinks the stock market overreacted to last week’s job data. He’s staying with his assessment that the U.S. economy is sticking a soft landing right now.

“The labor report was not bad, it was just weaker than expected and the unemployment rate went up,” said Miller.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. unemployment rate jumped to a three-year high in July of 4.3 percent from 4.1 percent in June. The Las Vegas Valley’s unemployment rate at the end of June was well above the national average at 6.2 percent, which Miller said is something to watch.

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Economists and tax experts say the money returned to the worker may be nominal and would not be the best way to help families. The median individual income in the Las Vegas region is roughly $50,800, and many of those workers depend on tips, according to Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV.

Nevada is one of seven states without a sub-minimum wage option for tipped workers. Silver State workers earn at least $12 per hour, while other states allow employees to pay their workers as low as $2.13 hourly if they earn tips on the job.

Woods said for many, their earnings and the tax credits they qualify for result in more tax returns than tax bills.

“I don’t know if, long term, the majority of people would even see the benefit,” Woods said. “They might see initially in terms of what they take home, but at the end of the year, when it all evens out, they might not see any gain.”

He also said he’s concerned the policy would discourage employers from paying fair wages. Customers may react negatively to increased emphasis on tips at a time of high inflation and discussions of the extent of tipping culture.

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UNLV’s latest annual 2024-2060 Population Forecast has Clark County’s population growth dipping below 2 percent in 2027 and below 1 percent by 2039. By 2060, the county will only be adding around 15,000 residents annually, for 0.5 percent growth.

Attracting new residents because of affordability, jobs

Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV and one of the authors of the report, said right now Clark County has a leg up on a lot of places in terms of attracting residents given its affordability.

“We are still a very popular place for particularly Californians to move to, and we get a good influx of people from Arizona and Illinois. And so 60 percent of our population growth is coming from out of state,” he said. “It’s really important for us to talk about economic migrants, they’re coming here for work and they’re coming here for economic purposes, such as a lower cost of living. And so we’re not like most of the nation where we’re on this gradual decline yet in terms of population growth. We’ve got a lot of people still moving here and they are voting with their feet.”

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Back in 1996, the UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic development projected that Clark County would have 2.26 million residents by 2024.

Turns out they weren’t far off as this year the same report, the 2024-2060 Population Forecasts has the county’s population at 2.41 million, so 26 years ago they were only off by approximately 147,000 residents.

Clark County is expected to hit 3 million residents in 2042, and the 1996 report estimated the county would break 2.5 million residents by 2034. This year’s report has Clark County breaking 2.5 million residents by 2027.

Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV and one of the authors of the CBER report said there is a long history in the valley of population projections.

“From what I was told, we started doing this on our own in the early 1990s when the population was really booming and there were competing forecasts,” he said. “Sometime around 1997 there was agreement at least among local government entities to focus on one forecast which I credit my predecessor, Dr. Keith Schwer, with achieving.”

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“It was good happenstance that land was annexed for the industrial park… [The City of North Las Vegas] were the ones willing to take the risk on because they had no other choice,” said Andrew Woods, UNLV economics professor and directer for the Center for Business and Economic Research.

Woods said another way North Las Vegas has grown its population is by attracting residents with jobs and attracting workers who want short commutes to work.

“Now that they have those jobs, the challenge is that they want the workers to spend their money in North Las Vegas rather than at the casinos,” he said.

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UNLV has released projections for Clark County’s population covering the next 35 years.

The university’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) on Wednesday published its 2024-2060 population forecasts.

According to the latest forecast, the county’s population is expected to reach about 2,969,000 by 2040.

The report predicts Clark County will surpass 3 million people in 2042, and by 2060, the population is expected to reach 3,337,000.

For comparison, the county’s current population is estimated at 2,410,000.

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Clark County is expected to hit 3 million residents in 2042, according to a new UNLV report.

The county’s population is expected to grow “steadily” in the near future, adding approximately 38,414 residents to its population in 2024 and continue growing at more than 1 percent per year up until 2039 when it will have 2.9 million residents, said Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV.

The center on Wednesday released its annual 2024-2060 Population Forecasts report, which is prepared for various local government bodies and compiles estimates and a demographic outlook.

Woods said leisure and hospitality (which includes food and accommodations) will continue to drive job growth and employment numbers in the next 1o years, however added another industry has started to push its way to the top of the list in the valley.

“What is interesting is health care is going to be our No. 2 in terms of our largest driver of employment growth in the next 10 to 20 years,” he said. “So the second largest total jobs in the valley will be health care by 2028.”

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