(The Center Square) - Nevada’s unemployment rate remained one of the highest in the country to end 2025, as tourism fell across the year and construction jobs declined in December.
2025 in Nevada ended with widespread concern over the future of Las Vegas, which some experts have called overblown. They point to a new year that will look optimistically at a number of high-profile events set to stage in Las Vegas, along with a lithium industry potentially on the edge of a multi-billion dollar boom.
“If you pay too much attention to social media, sometimes you might get the sense like, ‘Do people even visit Las Vegas anymore?’” said David Schmidt, the chief economist with the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
“The answer is, definitely yes – I think the strength of what's taking place there is probably underrated," Schmidt told The Center Square.
He sees innovation as the answer. Las Vegas, he said, can reinvent itself for "a new and changing consumer."
"Las Vegas has been doing that for decades, and they continue to be innovative," Schmidt said.
Between January and November, visitors to Las Vegas declined 7.4% from 2024 to 2025, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Still, Las Vegas welcomed nearly 40 million visitors to the city last year.
But Nevada’s unemployment rate (5.2%) remained higher than the U.S. average (4.4%) throughout 2025, even as the second half of the year saw a slow decrease in the state and an increase nationwide. For a while, Nevada was the state with the nation's second-highest unemployment, behind California. But Nevada ended the year behind New Jersey and tied with Oregon for the third-highest unemployment.
One note on Nevada’s relatively high unemployment rate was that many unemployed people were actively looking for work. In addition, a relatively low number of people were looking for work because they were fired.
“ Having a higher unemployment rate because people are looking isn't in and of itself bad. It depends on why you're unemployed,” said Schmidt, adding later that too many fired individuals on the market can be a larger issue. “It's that job loss that's really the big indicator of ‘Hey, there's a downturn, there's a recession.’”
The federal government shutdown from October to mid-November did not have much of an effect on Nevada’s job reports from October to December.
The most negatively impacted job sector to end 2025 in Nevada was the construction industry. It was down 9.4% over the year. Look back a little over two years ago to the industry’s peak in late 2023, and construction is down roughly 12,000 jobs today. At the same time, the average wage in construction increased 9%.
“I think a lot of that is in the housing slowdown,” said Schmidt.
The housing market fell off slightly from 2024 to 2025, with less activity and a below-peak median house value, as per Las Vegas Realtors.
On the flip side, participation in the labor market was at its highest (63.2%) in December 2025, for the period starting in March 2020 and immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I put a lot of weight on [labor] participation, because if you have a very low participation rate, your economic potential is a lot more restricted. It's harder to get someone to start looking for work and then get them into a job than it is to connect someone who's already looking to get a job that's out there,” said Schmidt. “It’s a really positive indicator for 2026, knowing that it's the highest level that we've seen since before the start of the pandemic.”
Schmidt said he was cautious to make 2026 predictions because, “You know how well I can predict the future by the fact that I still have to work for a living.” But he said there were several reasons for optimism for the new year.
While there will be no World Cup games played in Las Vegas this summer, the city has marketed itself as a place to stop for international tourists following their teams around the U.S. WWE’s WrestleMania will also be coming back to Las Vegas after a successful 2025.
“ There's some really interesting things coming down the pipe,” said Schmidt.
Much has been made over recent years of Nevada’s massive lithium deposits, with developments in 2025 pushing the industry close to a potential boom.
“The opportunity is not just to extract lithium and send it somewhere else, but to extract the lithium, refine the lithium, to build things with the lithium, and to take those batteries and recycle them at the end of the day,” said Schmidt. “With all of that comes a higher level of technology that's needed, which means a higher level of research and investment and development. I think that's the opportunity to not just be where they dig stuff up, but to be the ones coming up with the innovations in technology.”
