When it comes to the economy, Las Vegas will likely be happy to forget 2011 — and that was illustrated Thursday with issuance of yet another report documenting the city’s troubles during the recession.
The Milken Institute said in its annual ranking of the best-performing U.S. cities that Las Vegas fell 33 spots in 2011 and is now ranked at No. 197 out of 200. Even worse for Nevada, one of the three communities that ranked behind Las Vegas was Reno-Sparks, at No. 199. Carson City, in a ranking of the nation's smaller markets, dropped six spots from last year to come in at No. 171.
The Milken Institute noted that Las Vegas’s ranking at third from the bottom is quite a decline from the boom years for the city, when it was ranked No. 2 in both 2003 and 2004.
The annual report does not include quality of life factors but instead focuses on job, wage and technology industry performance to rank cities.
With unemployment now at 13.1 percent, Las Vegas ranked last among the 200 cities studied by Milken this year in the category of one-year job growth between 2009 and 2010.
It came in at No. 173 for five-year job growth between 2005 and 2010.
For the most recent period measured, between June 2010 and June 2011, job growth locally came in at minus-0.27 percent, putting Las Vegas at No. 142 in the nation in that category.
In a ranking of high-tech businesses concentrated in the city, Las Vegas came in at No. 191 — yet another indication of the lack of economic diversification in the city.
In the overall rankings, San Antonio was No. 1 while Houston was the highest-ranked city among the nation’s 10 largest metro areas.
"Despite continuing national economic weakness, the Texas job machine continued to crank out employment gains: Its employers created one of every six new jobs in the United States in the year through October," the institute said in its report. "Texas benefits from lower reliance on durable goods manufacturing, low business costs, the ongoing consolidation of military bases, increased trade with Mexico and South America, continued energy exploration and development, and aggressive recruiting of employers from less business-friendly states."
In a potentially troubling development for Nevada, a key competitor for businesses — neighboring Utah — was also singled out by Milken for its strong performance.
The Salt Lake City, Provo and Ogden metro areas in Utah all cracked the Milken Institute’s Top 25 list of large markets, while Logan, Utah, was No. 1 nationwide in the list of small markets.
"Utah was the only state to double its volume of exports over the past five years, and Salt Lake's economy is highly diversified, with pharmaceuticals, medical devices, transportation equipment, financial services, and high-tech companies," the report said.
The Milken Institute is a nonprofit economic think tank created by financier Michael Milken.