State has work to do

By Steve Kanigher

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 4:54 a.m.

The most rapid job growth by percentage in Nevada this decade is expected to occur in fields related to computer technology. The top 15 occupations projected to grow through 2010 are listed below. Unlike the state's most common occupations, most of the jobs on this list exceed the state's average salary of $31,552 in 2002.

1. Computer support specialists

2. Desktop publishers

3. Computer software engineers, systems software

4. Computer systems administrators

5. Surgical technologists

6. Computer software engineers, applications

7. Textile/apparel/furnishings workers

8. Social and human service assistants

9. Religious activities/education directors

10. Computer systems/data communications analysts

11. Medical records/health information technicians

12. Physical therapist aides

13. Clergy

14. Computer and information systems managers

15. Hotel/motel/resort desk clerks

Source: Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation

Types of jobs Businesses that were represented at the Aug. 1 Diversity Employment Expo, sponsored by the Southern Nevada Hispanic Employment Program Council at the MGM Grand Conference Center, were looking for a variety of job applicants. Some examples:

Ramp agents to load baggage and provisioning agents to load supplies onto the airplanes.

Customer service and sales representatives who speak both English and Spanish.

Credit card collection representatives to work in their call center.

Engineers, scientists and support staff to work at the Nevada Test Site and in other areas under the company's contract with the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Since the nation's economy was rocked by a recession and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, one of the biggest worries on the minds of Americans is whether they will have a job.

Except, perhaps, in Nevada, which has plenty of jobs compared with most other states. Nevada has so many jobs that it once again leads the nation in employment growth, as it did before the terrorist attacks.

While that lofty ranking makes the state look good in the short run, it glosses over long-term projections that show that Nevada will continue to rely heavily on low-skilled workers in jobs that don't require college degrees.

If Nevada wants to improve its lot in the long run, it will have to diversify its tourism-based economy and attract higher-paying jobs to the state, according to public officials and economic experts who believe that relying too heavily on a single industry makes Nevada vulnerable during hard times.

That's why they would like to see Nevada expand into industries such as health care and computer technology and establish itself as a transportation hub for goods from other states. They say that if tourism suddenly goes bad the state could fall back on these other industries.

They also say that higher-paying jobs are needed because individuals who hold those positions generate more taxes than low-skilled workers and rely less on taxpayer-funded social services. That could have a positive ripple effect on state- and local-government budgets that have been bursting at the seams as they struggle to pay for growth.

And because higher-paying workers on average are well-educated, they also tend to be more supportive of the arts and of charitable organizations, which the experts say would also improve Nevada.

The desire for higher-paying jobs is the primary reason Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman says he continues to push hard for establishment of a medical training center downtown. Goodman envisions that the center would also attract spin-off medical and biotechnology businesses.

The mayor said employees with medical and scientific expertise would bring a "genius" to the community that would force it to improve.

"It would bring in a whole new industry that we haven't had before," Goodman said. "These are people who are well-educated. They insist on a good education for their children and a better university system.

"These are folks who came from cities that have world-class symphonies and ballets. They would expect to have that and it would enhance what we have here."

As for the jobs that are already here, Nevada led the nation with a 1.9 percent employment increase from June 2002 to June 2003, according to preliminary figures from the Labor Department. That translated into a net gain of 17,000 jobs statewide. The gain in Las Vegas was 2 percent.

Still, as a percentage gain, it is nowhere close to the nation-leading 5 percent job growth that Nevada enjoyed from June 2000 to June 2001. "We're expecting job growth of only about 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent annually until 2005 because we're still feeling the effects of Sept. 11," economist Joseph Reel of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said.

While other states have been losing jobs because of manufacturing slumps, Nevada's population growth continues to fuel increased employment. Construction is booming and growth has also driven demand for government, business and health care services, which also has meant more jobs.

"Historically, in times of recession, Las Vegas has always been the last to go down and the first to recover," Somer Hollingsworth, president and chief executive officer of the Nevada Development Authority, said. "Part of it revolves around the resiliency of the tourism industry. As soon as people have money, they say, 'Let's go to Las Vegas.' "

Comparatively, at least, Las Vegas is doing well in job creation. The Labor Department reported last month that Las Vegas ranked third in the nation among metropolitan areas over the past year by adding 15,500 jobs, trailing only Washington (25,800) and Atlanta (17,200).

But Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury is among the community leaders who thinks that Nevada needs more industries and higher-paying jobs. He said he would like to see more higher-paying jobs here because many young Nevadans who are pursuing careers that require college educations are often forced to go out of state to find the jobs of their choosing.

"We have a vibrant economy but we'd like it to be more diversified," Woodbury said. "We need to get away from having so much reliance on the tourism industry. The expansion of the resort market seems to drive our job growth. But a lot of those jobs are not high-paying."

Once a state locks into a particular industry, as Nevada did when it legalized gambling in 1931, it becomes difficult to change the local economy in terms of the mix of jobs available, economist Keith Schwer, director of UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research, said. Nevada's heavy reliance on low-paying service-sector jobs is likely to remain that way for years to come, he said.

"We're diversifying but the large components of our economy are growing at the same rate," Schwer said. "Diversification is not an easy activity. We were the only state with legalized gambling until 1978, so we had a built-up advantage when it came to tourism. Economies don't grow by leaps and bounds. They're still growing wheat in Kansas, and they're still making orange juice in Florida."

That is borne out by projections from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, which show that the state's overall employment market will continue to be dominated through at least 2010 by relatively low-wage jobs. Of the 15 occupations that are expected to be the most common in Nevada in 2010 -- a list that is similar to the top occupations in 2000 -- 12 pay less than the average state salary of $31,552 in 2002.

The most common jobs include retail salesmen, waiters and waitresses, cashiers, gaming dealers, janitors and housekeepers. Those jobs paid from $13,281 to $22,568 on average last year, excluding benefits and tips, according to state wage data.

"As our population base continues to grow we're still going to have a large number of those positions," economist Joseph Reel of the Nevada employment department said.

But Reel said the tourism industry is seeing its share of the local job market shrink by 2 percent to 3 percent every five to 10 years. In fact, that industry still has about 7,000 fewer jobs than the 309,000 positions that existed in September 2001, Reel said.

He pointed to other state projections that show the most rapid employment growth by percentage in Nevada from now through 2010 is expected to come from fields such as computer technology and medicine. These are jobs that pay above the state's average wage, but still make up only a tiny percentage of Nevada's job market.

The good news for those who believe Nevada should diversify its economy was that the leisure and hospitality industry, the state's top employer with 28 percent of the jobs as of June, did not have the biggest job increase over the past year. Four other sectors -- government, construction, education and health, and professional and business services -- did better.

The 5,000 Nevada jobs created by government -- 4,300 in Southern Nevada -- included 3,200 local government positions, 1,400 at the federal level and 400 at the state level, according to state labor data. In Southern Nevada, most of the new local government jobs were in the Clark County School District, county and municipal government and Metro Police.

Total employment at the school district, including part-time positions, jumped from 27,158 in fiscal 2002 to 28,792 last school year. Clark County added 205 positions last year, including new jobs at McCarran International Airport, District Court, fire stations and parks and recreation facilities.

Most of the new federal jobs were airport passenger and baggage screeners, positions that were transferred from the private sector.

Construction weighed in with 3,500 new jobs, including 3,000 in Clark County. "Construction has been driving job growth in Las Vegas with low interest rates for the housing market," Reel said.

Of the 2,900 new positions in education and health services -- 2,300 in Southern Nevada -- 1,600 involved ambulatory care and 800 others were at hospitals.

All but 500 of the 2,500 new jobs in professional and business services were in Clark County. Included were lawyers, architects, accountants, photographers, scientific researchers, engineers, computer systems designers and programmers, veterinarians and public relations workers.

Leisure and hospitality created 1,900 jobs in Southern Nevada but there was a net gain of only 1,500 positions statewide because of losses in Reno and elsewhere in Northern Nevada. Included in Southern Nevada was a net gain of 700 new casino jobs and 700 other positions related to bars, restaurants and other food services.

When it comes to employment, the resort industry could be on the verge of once again creating the most new jobs in the state, a position it held prior to the terrorist attacks.

At the Aug. 1 job fair dubbed Diversity Employment Expo at the MGM Grand Conference Center, no one was more enthusiastic than Venetian hotel community outreach coordinator Cecilia Bueno. In June the hotel opened a new 1,013-suite, 12-story tower named Venezia, a big reason the Strip resort has added 695 jobs since spring.

"We've had a lot of people promoted from within so a lot of positions opened up, from dealers to housekeepers," Bueno said. "There was a slight slump after Sept. 11, but as you can see we're at this job fair because we have opportunities."

When it comes to expansion, the Venetian has plenty of company within the resort industry. Mandalay Bay plans to open a new 1,122-suite tower this fall. It was announced last month that a plan has been resurrected to build a $350 million tower at Caesars Palace. The 2,701-room Wynn Las Vegas is scheduled to open on the Strip in March 2005. The Palms resort also gained approval last month from the Clark County Commission to build a second tower, although plans have not been finalized.

"I'd say the job market is going to pick up toward the end of the year," fellow job fair participant Marcos Garcia, superintendent of construction contractor Bergelectric Corp. of Las Vegas, said. "The large hotels are starting to build again and the job market will open up because of that."

Proponents of diversification say that expansion of the local economy into nongaming industries would be healthier for Southern Nevada in the long run so that it would have more industries to fall back on in the event of another slowdown in tourism.

Former county chief financial officer Guy Hobbs, managing partner of Las Vegas consulting firm Hobbs, Ong & Associates, said one area where Southern Nevada could expand is as a warehousing and shipping hub for Southern California, Arizona and Utah.

"There are advantages to having a mix of jobs because if one sector suffers, the others can hold it up," Hobbs said.

Mike Varney, Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce vice president of marketing, said that as the nation's economy is shifting from manufacturing to service industries more communities want to create jobs in high-tech and health care. He said Las Vegas should follow suit because its dependence on tourism could make it as vulnerable to economic downturns as in other communities that rely heavily on single industries, such as Houston with oil and San Jose, Calif., with computers.

"Any rational business executive would feel more comfortable if we had a variety of industries rather than putting our bet on one industry," Varney said. "With our aging population health care has to be a priority. You have a lot of Baby Boomers that are coming into retirement."

But because of Nevada's heavy reliance on tourism and other jobs that require few skills, it is no surprise to Schwer that those occupations would remain among the most common in the state for years to come.

"These would be described as low-skill jobs so there are not a lot of educational requirements," Schwer said. "Las Vegas is still offering economic opportunities for those people."

For someone such as former resort housekeeper and current Culinary Union Local 226 President Geoconda Arguello-Klein, that's a good thing. When she worked in Miami as a housekeeper earning minimum wage, Arguello-Klein said she couldn't afford health insurance, let alone a house.

Six years after moving to Las Vegas in 1983 and joining the union, Arguello-Klein said she was able to buy a house. She also had health care coverage through her employer's Culinary contract. From that perspective, she said Las Vegas is a place of opportunity for housekeepers, waiters and waitresses and others who work in relatively low-skilled occupations.

"When you have a union the standard of living increases," she said. "That's why a lot of these people are attracted to Las Vegas."

Communities such as Las Vegas with mostly service-based industries have faster-growing economies than do communities that rely on manufacturing, Schwer said. Tourism brings money to the state and Nevada's growth has the added advantage of allowing residents to spend more money on goods and services at home as an increasing number of businesses are established locally, he said.

But the state's economy would be even stronger if more higher-paying jobs could be added, public officials and businessmen say. Jeremy Aguero, an economic analyst and principal of Applied Analysis in Las Vegas, said individuals with higher-paying jobs tend to rely less on government services, yet pay more in taxes and pump more money into the local economy.

"People with higher-paying jobs demand fewer health and human services," Aguero said. "They tend to spend more money and generate more in sales and use taxes."

Aguero said there are "entire segments" of Southern Nevada's economy that are made up of businesses and their employees, such as those with low-paying jobs and no health insurance, who "don't pay their own way" when it comes to the use of government services because they are not generating enough tax revenue.

Having more higher-paying jobs and businesses that pay their way in terms of taxes would help generate more revenue to pay for public services, he said.

"Generally speaking, we have a low poverty rate," Aguero said. "But we also don't provide the level of government services that other states provide."

Varney said the importance of higher-paying jobs cannot be overemphasized because the discretionary spending those occupations provide serve to grow other aspects of a local economy, producing even more jobs.

"You have a huge domino effect," he said. "A household that has more money has more choices. They can buy a nicer home or more furniture or a nicer car. And they could give their children a better education."

Higher-paid individuals also tend to be more supportive of local cultural arts and nonprofit organizations, Woodbury said.

"They also provide a base to encourage people who are going to our colleges and universities to stay here," he said.

At the Nevada Development Authority, the goal is to recruit businesses from other states in an effort to diversify Nevada's job market. The sales pitch is that Nevada is pro-growth with a favorable tax structure for business.

In the 12 months through June, 20 of the 54 companies the authority recruited from elsewhere came from California, Hollingsworth said.

"You have to look at what's going on next door in California," he said. "They're anti-business and under siege there. That shows up in their taxes. Their worker's compensation is out of control. The cost is killing companies there. And the power rates are also killing them.

"We're starting to get manufacturing and technology companies coming in. In the next five to 10 years you will see strong job growth in the nongaming sectors. Most of the companies that are coming here don't bring their employees so they're hiring locally."