The number of unemployed individuals in the Las Vegas MSA reached 72,698, an increase of 4,474 since May 2025, but 691 fewer than in June 2024.

“Leisure and hospitality grew the slowest. Then professional business services are second, so those two sectors are declining shares of the total economy,” Stephen Miller, Research Director for the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV said.

The labor force in Las Vegas has also seen some changes, increasing to 1,245,482 in June 2025, a rise from 1,245,263 in May 2025 and up 28,782 since June 2024. This indicates a growing workforce in the area, despite the slight increase in the unemployment rate.

Professor Stephen Miller attributes this persistence to a restructuring economy. While tourism rebounds, former hospitality workers are still transitioning to different career paths.

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A new survey from the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) highlights the challenges Nevada job seekers faced in 2024, including mismatches between job preferences and available roles, transportation barriers and gaps in training and certification access.

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“It’s really important to put into perspective how important leisure and hospitality are to our economy,” Andrew Woods, the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told The Daily Upside. “Here in Clark County, it’s about one in four jobs, and a third of GDP.”

Last year ended on an optimistic note. The city drew 41.6 million visitors, a 2.1% increase that brought it ever so close to pre-pandemic levels. International arrivals at Harry Reid International Airport, the primary flight hub for the Las Vegas Valley, rose 14% year-over-year to 2.7 million (still trailing the 3.8 million in 2019). This helped Nevada set a record for annual casino revenue for the fourth year in a row, with nearly $16 billion.

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What happens in Las Vegas matters on a national scale because it often reflects larger trends, according to Andrew Woods,  the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“It tends to be a signal for potentially where the economy’s headed,” he said.

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The Las Vegas Strip is seen looking south from Flamingo Road in this March 24, 2023, photo. The next president won’t immediately affect the path of gaming and tourism in Las Vegas, said Andrew Woods, an economist and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV.

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Despite a strong June jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Stephen Miller, professor and research director at UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said the U.S. job market is beginning to soften.

“It’s softening slowly,” Miller said. “It’s slowing down, but it’s still very positive.”

With the nationwide unemployment rate slowly increasing, the average duration of unemployment is doing the same. It increased from 20.7 weeks in June 2024 to 23 weeks in June 2025. Though comparable data is not readily available for Nevada, it suggests an increased difficulty in finding suitable work.

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Tourism and gambling have powered Las Vegas for decades — but with a historic decline in visitors and the uncertainty of a global trade war, many locals are starting to feel uneasy, even reminded of the 2008 recession. So how bad is it really, and what’s being done to protect the city’s future? Co-host Dayvid Figler talks with Shani Coleman from Clark County’s Office of Community and Economic Development and Andrew Woods from UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research about where things stand and how Las Vegas is trying to build a more resilient and diverse economy.

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Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Especially when the world-renowned entertainment capital is experiencing some bumps in the road.

According to a recent report led by Stephen Miller, a professor of economics and research director at UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, the outlook for Las Vegas’ gaming and tourism sectors through the end of 2025 and into 2026 isn’t as glitzy as one might hope.

Let’s break down what’s happening and what’s being done about it.

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An economist at the University of Nevada Las Vegas expressed concern about Las Vegas gaming and tourism for the rest of the year and the start of 2026.

Stephen Miller and the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) released a mid-year report this week, discussing the year-to-date decline in visitation (6.5%) and gaming revenue (1.1%) on the Strip. The report noted that the national economy faces a slowdown and uncertainty in the next six to 18 months over tariffs and the business climate that could exacerbate both.

CBER’s most recent Tourism Index for Southern Nevada declined 2.1 percent month over month and 2.2 percent year over year.

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Economics professor and research director for the Center for Business & Economic Research at UNLV, Stephen Miller, says he saw the increases in inflation coming.

“Well, I didn’t find it all surprising. At some point, this tariff tango that’s been going on for months is going to have its effect on prices,” Miller said.

Miller believes the inflation increase is just getting started.

“You know, I expect it to go up. I don’t know how much, probably maybe 3-4% for a few months,” he told me.

Inflation impacts everything, but just as a reminder, the 2.7% figure represents the average price increase from June 2024 to June 2025 for all products, including food, gas, rent, apparel and more. This means some items rose more than 2.7% and others even decreased in price.

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