ECONOMY:

How much has leisure and hospitality employment grown in Nevada? Check these charts

Erik Kabik / Retna / ErikKabik.com

The grand opening of SLS Las Vegas on Friday, Aug. 22, 2014, on the Strip.

Next year, the number of people employed in Nevada’s leisure and hospitality sector could return to the highest level it had reached before the recession hit.

Since falling to a low point of slightly fewer than 304,000 employees in November 2009, the state’s leisure and hospitality labor force has rebounded back to 335,500 people in July of this year, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Leisure and hospitality employees include casino, hotel, restaurant, nightlife and entertainment workers.

July’s level is only 7,100 jobs lower than the sector’s peak of 342,600 workers in December 2007. If employment grows at the current rate, the sector should close that gap in the second half of 2015.

“Basically, because the recession impacted consumer spending and disposable incomes so much, that sector was very hard hit. We’ve turned a corner, and we’ve been adding jobs the past couple of years,” said Bill Anderson, chief economist for the research and analysis bureau at the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. “We think that reaching the pre-recessionary peak is in sight.”

When the ranks of leisure and hospitality employees reached their highest pre-recession level in 2007, the statewide unemployment rate was 5.2 percent with 69,100 people jobless. This July, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent with 105,200 people jobless.

Anderson said that as the recession “eased its grip” on the economy, consumers regained some disposable income and demand for leisure and hospitality services increased. He pointed to the recent opening of SLS Las Vegas, which hired around 3,000 people, as a healthy sign.

Employment in the sector has grown slower on average than it did leading up to its 2007 high, indicating that the post-recession gains may be more sustainable.

Between January 2004 and December 2007, the state added an average of 712 leisure and hospitality employees to the workforce each month. Now, the sector is growing by an average of 564 workers monthly.

“Looking at it from a broader perspective, the kind of economic growth we’re seeing right now is arguably more sustainable in that we’re not growing by the leaps and bounds that we were prior to the recession,” Anderson said, referring to the state as a whole. “It’s more moderate growth, it’s more diversified growth, and the hope is that going forward as downturns happen, we won’t be quite as susceptible as we were last time.”

Looking only at casino employees tells a different story.

According to UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research, the number of workers in Nevada’s casinos and resorts peaked in 2006 at 215,000 employees and, as of 2013, had yet to return anywhere close to that after dropping off sharply in 2009.

In 2013, the state had fewer than 170,000 people working in its casinos. That number isn’t just gaming employees — it includes people who work in a resort’s hotel, food, beverage and other departments, too.

One factor is that Nevada had fewer casinos in 2013 than when employment was at its highest point. There were 273 casinos in the state in 2006, but in 2013 there were only 252.

David Schwartz, director of the gaming research center, said casinos have also “become a little bit less labor intensive” over the years.

For example, ticket in, ticket out slot machines have allowed casinos to curtail their slot departments because they don’t need as many types of employees as they did when slots were all coin-based, he said. Schwartz said it may have taken years for those efficiencies to become evident because they didn’t happen instantaneously.

A reduction in staffing hasn’t meant less pay for casino workers overall, according to the gaming research center. Payroll expenses per employee were more than $10,000 higher in 2013 than they were 10 years previously, even though the number of employees dropped by more than 20,000 over the same period.

In a May report, the gaming research center said employees’ pay has fared relatively well after the recession. Since the 2007 fiscal year, the decline in casino employees has not been reflected in equivalent payroll cuts, according to the report.

“As a result, those employees that remain are better paid, both in absolute and relative terms, than they were before the recession,” the report said.

Schwartz said he was unsure what it would take for the state to have the same number of casino workers it did in 2006.

“It’s difficult to say because the industry has changed so much,” he said. “They probably would need to open a lot more casinos.”

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