LAS VEGAS -- The economic news for Las Vegas in 2011 wasn't good but one of the city's leading economic analysts says 2012 is looking better.
"If we were going to classify 2011, we'd classify it as a year of transition where we moved out of the recession and began this process of recovery," said Jeremy Aguero who crunches southern Nevada's economic numbers for Applied Analysis.
"If we are going to classify what we anticipate for 2012, it's really whether or not that recovery is sustainable. What does the new economy look like from the standpoint of the mix of employees, what do we expect and who will stay, who will leave? Those type of things," he said.
Progress was made in 2011, despite the clear signs of economic pain that still scar southern Nevada. One good sign is that wages and salaries are beginning to tick up for those who still have jobs. Also, tourists occupied more hotel rooms than they did during the 2008 peak. Which leads to another long-term problem.
"The reality is our economy is less diversified today than it was 12 months ago. That's because we've seen expansion in our tourist industry in terms of job creation while other industries have declined," Aguero said.
Although retail sales are up, stores are still waiting to hire.
"We were looking for a little bit more in terms of employment growth than what we got during 2011. Taxable retail sales saw the increase that we were expecting, but we haven't seen that be accompanied by an increase in retail employment."
There are still 120,000 southern Nevadans actively looking for work and that doesn't even count those who have given up. When all is said and done, 2012 may be known as the year that Las Vegas stopped getting beat up for its economic woes and began to redefine itself.
The Brooking Institute and the Secretary of State released a new plan meant as Nevada's business blueprint. Expect to see more in-depth reports from the I-Team in Nevada's business future in the next few months.
