Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

The economy:

Nevada ranks almost last nationally for high-value jobs

Nevada’s workforce may be well on its way to recovering from the economic crash, but the state still has a long way to go when it comes to developing jobs critical for long-term growth, the Brookings Institute found.

Nevada ranks almost last nationally for high-value jobs.

A new report, “America’s Advanced Industries: What They Are, Where They Are, and Why They Matter,” outlines the strength and distribution of 50 advanced industry sectors across the United States, including manufacturing, energy, computer software and biotechnology.

Nevada has 5.1 percent of the national share of high-value jobs, ranking 50th of 51 states and the District of Columbia for distribution, researchers found. The Las Vegas metropolitan area fared a little better, ranking No. 65 among 100 for number of advanced industry jobs (30,810), but 97 of 100 for overall national share (3.6 percent).

On the upside, Southern Nevada’s advanced industries sector grew 3 percent from 2010 to 2013, compared to a 1.9 percent change in total employment. Computer design and medicine saw the largest expansion, growing more than 9 percent.

Las Vegas’ high-tech industries produced about $6 billion in economic output in 2013, about 7.1 percent of the nation’s total advanced industry output of $2.8 trillion.

Brookings researchers say advanced industries are critical to the country’s ongoing economic recovery and are the nation's best chance for returning to pre-recession prosperity levels. For example, Las Vegas-area workers in advanced industries earned an average annual wage of $81,320 in 2013, compared to $46,090 for workers in other industries.

Researchers called on public, private and civic sector leaders to promote advanced industries by funding research, teaching sector-specific skills to workers and investing in local infrastructure and institutions to foster growth and innovation.

”Advanced industries power our national and regional economies, but their preeminence is in no way assured — and in fact it’s challenged,” said Mark Muro, Brookings senior fellow and director of policy at the Metropolitan Policy Program, which published the study. “If we want to reclaim broadly shared opportunity in the United States, we are going to need to shore up the global competitiveness of our advanced industries.”

Follow Andrea Domanick on Twitter at @AndreaDomanick and fan her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AndreaDomanick.

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