The Southern Nevada economy will likely sputter along for the next four to six months without much job creation, a new report from UNLV says.
UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research on Thursday said its Southern Nevada Index of Leading Economic Indicators for October was essentially flat.
The index, based on data from August, showed mixed results for the tourism, retail and real estate industries.
On the real estate side, gains from July in residential building permit valuations were somewhat offset by declines in commercial permit valuations.
The UNLV center said residential permit valuations totaled $48.4 million vs. $8 million on the commercial side.
In the tourism sector, a 5.13 percent month-to-month gain in gaming win, which totaled $752 million, and a boost in convention attendance were somewhat offset by an overall decline in visitor volume.
Taxable sales of $2.4 billion, in the meantime, were off slightly from July.
“Gaming revenue made the most positive contribution, reflecting the continued improvement in the Southern Nevada tourism sector,” the UNLV center said in its report. “Although the leading index shows a general upward trend since late 2010, the latest reading suggests that we can expect little change in the number of jobs in the next four-six months.”
The UNLV report follows the Oct. 19 release of a more optimistic employment report for Southern Nevada, which found joblessness running locally at 13.6 percent in September, down from 14.3 percent in August.
The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said in that report that Las Vegas-area employers had added 9,600 jobs in September.
After earlier declines, this lifted employment in Las Vegas by 8,000 jobs compared to September 2010, a 1 percent increase, the state agency said.