Report: Jobs won’t return to pre-recession levels for 7 years

By Buck Wargo

Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

The Mountain West region, which includes Nevada, is on pace to wait another seven years before job levels return to those before the recession, according to a report released by Brookings Mountain West.

The second-quarter report from the think tank at UNLV said Las Vegas and Boise, Idaho, lost jobs, while Phoenix saw a 1 percent gain during the quarter.

“It is clear when looking across metropolitan area economies with unusual reliance on highly cyclical industries — like housing and tourism — places them at greater risk of experiencing a more wrenching recession than others,” the report said.

Brookings reported the GMP (gross metropolitan product) that measures economic growth had fallen 4.2 percent from its peak in Las Vegas and 0.1 percent from the first quarter of 2010.

The report said housing prices in the region — Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Idaho and New Mexico — are unlikely to fall much further. Housing prices are undervalued in most metropolitan areas, including Las Vegas.

The report said homes prices had fallen overall for the region to levels more than 2 percent below where they would have been had they tracked pre-boom trends in employment and wages over the past decade. It said Las Vegas is 3 percent underpriced.

Las Vegas’ prices have fallen 55.2 percent from their peak compared to the next lowest, Phoenix, at 45.6 percent.

Las Vegas prices, however, fell only 0.9 percent from the first quarter to second quarter of 2010, the smallest decline in the region. Phoenix fell 4.4 percent in that span, the report said.