Las Vegas jobless rate improves, but still higher than most metro areas across US

By Eli Segall
Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 28, 2026 – 1:11 pm

Las Vegas’ jobless rate moved lower over the last year but is still higher than most big metro areas across the country, new data shows.

The unemployment rate in the Las Vegas area in September was 4.8 percent, down from 5.7 percent during the same month last year.

Nonetheless, Las Vegas’ unemployment rate was tied with Tucson, Arizona, for seventh highest among the 56 largest metro areas in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among them, Cleveland had the lowest jobless rate last month at 1.9 percent, while Fresno, California, had the highest at 7.3 percent.

Metro-level jobless rates are not seasonally adjusted, meaning they are not stripped of normal seasonal fluctuations in headcount.

Statewide, job growth over the past year accelerated slightly, with gains in healthcare, business services, and construction, according to a recent report from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

In the Las Vegas area, employers added 21,800 jobs over the past year, up 1.9 percent, the department reported, citing seasonally adjusted data.

Andrew Woods, director of UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said the local jobless rate has come down because employers are adding jobs outside Las Vegas’ dominant leisure and hospitality sector.

But he said that Las Vegas’ unemployment rate is still among the highest nationally because hiring has been weak in the tourism industry, “and we don’t see that turning around anytime soon.”

Consumers nationwide are “pretty unhappy” with high inflation and the overall lack affordability across numerous aspects of daily life, he indicated, so the tourism industry, which is fueled by discretionary spending, has struggled.

In Las Vegas, when it comes to tourism-related hiring, Woods said: “We’re kind of in a rut.”

John Restrepo, owner of Las Vegas consulting firm RCG Economics, reported that Southern Nevada’s improved jobless rate “looks better than it is.”

The number of employed residents “was essentially unchanged” over the past year, but the lower jobless rate can be largely attributed to about 12,000 people leaving the local labor force, according to Restrepo.

He noted that the jobless rate comprises the number of out-of-work people divided by the labor force, which itself counts everyone who is working or looking for a job.

Restrepo also noted that visitor trends will matter more for Las Vegas’ unemployment rate “than for nearly any other large metro.”

Visitor stats
Southern Nevada relies heavily on visitors traveling here to spend big eating, drinking, gambling, partying and going to shows and conventions to fuel the local economy.

Locally and nationally, personal finances have been squeezed this year by higher gas prices and elevated inflation, and visitor volume to America’s casino capital has been largely flat.

Around 25.8 million people visited Las Vegas this year through August, down 0.1 percent from the same eight-month stretch last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Still, that’s a big improvement from last year, when people cut back on Vegas vacations amid a series of financial headwinds and as President Donald Trump’s trade wars sparked widespread economy anxiety.

Around 38.5 million people visited Las Vegas last year, down 7.5 percent — or a drop of more than 3 million people — from 2024, according to LVCVA data.

Hiring trends
Las Vegas’ tourism industry has long fueled the broader economy in Southern Nevada. But over the past year, hiring in that sector has been largely flat while employers in other sectors have added workers at a faster clip.

An estimated 302,800 people locally worked in leisure and hospitality — by far the highest of any industry in Southern Nevada — as of last month, up 0.2 percent from a year earlier, according to non-seasonally adjusted federal data.

Among other industries:

Around 186,600 people worked in professional and business services in the Las Vegas area last month, up 6.3 percent year-over-year; 143,200 people worked in education and health services, up 5.1 percent; and 82,700 people worked in construction, up 2.6 percent.

Overall, Southern Nevada business leaders’ confidence jumped significantly in the third quarter, and though they still expected national and local economic conditions to worsen, it was by “smaller magnitudes” than in the prior quarter, according to UNLV’s economic research center.