Las Vegas, America’s hardest hit metropolitan economy, just suffered another blow

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Muoio worked as an event coordinator for a third-party electricity supplier and carefully choreographed the energy needs of exhibitors, presenters and attendees at trade shows held in the huge hall.

“There are very long days and you are on your feet all the time,” said Muoio, 39. “Sometimes you don’t even have time to eat.”

During a typical January, CES’s presence in and around Las Vegas is undeniable. Hotel prices are skyrocketing, restaurants and clubs are crowded, and workers like Muoio are logging overtime to make sure everything goes off without a hitch for the lucrative big show and related events. Last year, the 170,000 CES attendees generated $ 169 million in direct spending and a broader economic impact of $ 291.2 million, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

This decision, intended to prioritize health and safety during the Covid-19 pandemic, is another blow to a city already shaken by the current health and economic crises.

In January 2020, the CES conference reportedly drew 170,000 attendees to Las Vegas and generated $ 169 million in direct spending and a broader economic impact of $ 291.2 million. (Mark Damon / Las Vegas News Bureau)

Money is running out

The Las Vegas job market was hit the hardest among major U.S. metropolitan areas during the pandemic. The region relies heavily on travel, discretionary spending, business conferences, and large gatherings, but has seen these key buttons disabled.

In April 2020, the closures resulted in an unemployment rate of 34% in Las Vegas. Although it has improved since then, Las Vegas still has the highest unemployment rate among major metropolitan areas, according to data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In November 2020, the unemployment rate for the Las Vegas metropolitan area was 11.5% and 128,000 people – including Muoio – were left out of work.

After being put on leave in March, Muoio was permanently sacked in August.

Since then, she says she has applied for hundreds of jobs – including home event coordinator roles and customer service or marketing positions – but has nothing yet. permanent off hook.

Living without health insurance and waiting for a pending state unemployment benefit claim since August, Muoio said she was lucky to have saved money for a possible down payment on a house.

“This money drains slowly, slowly,” she said. “I am short of.”

Brandon Geyer faces a similar situation. He has been out of work since March.

Brandon Geyer, a bartender in Las Vegas, said he had been unemployed since March.

“In March, when this first happened, I felt like we were going to be closed for a few weeks, that’s okay,” he said. “Another week goes by, and another week goes by, and all of a sudden, I haven’t been back to work since March.”

For nearly 24 years, Geyer, 49, operated the Main Street Station bar, a casino, brewery and hotel in downtown Las Vegas which remains temporarily closed due to the pandemic. And while the crowds grew every time CES came to town, Main Street Station attracted a loyal following, many of whom Geyer has known well over the years.

Geyer said he was grateful to receive unemployment benefits, that his wife still had her job and that they had money in savings to support themselves and their two children. Culinary Workers Union Local 226 also helped provide weekly food aid and groceries.

But the loss of full and stable income is taking its toll, Geyer said. He hopes pressure from his union for Clark County, Nevada to adopt a “right to return” policy is put in place, forcing employers to offer laid-off workers the right to return to their old jobs when businesses will reopen.

“We’re just wondering when we’re going to get back to work,” he said.

Boyd Gaming-owned Main Street Station is slated to reopen sometime in 2021, CEO Keith Smith said during the company’s latest earnings call in October.

Strangely empty

Around the same time last year, there was great optimism that 2020 – and CES 2021 – would be pretty prosperous for Las Vegas, said Steve Hill, chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

“We put [room tax dollars] records in seven of the previous ten months, ”he said. It looked like it would definitely continue. “

Plans to build hotels and resorts were underway, and the city was not only due to host the NFL Draft in April, but it would also have the glitzy $ 1.94 billion Allegiant Stadium filled with fans for cheer on the recently relocated NFL Raiders team.
And for January 2021, CES was set to be the first event in a nearly $ 1 billion expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center and serve as the start of a futuristic “people-mover” from The Boring. Company of Elon Musk.
The Las Vegas Convention Center has seen an expansion of nearly $ 1 billion, and CES 2021 was slated to be the first event held in its newly constructed West Hall. Instead, the event is completely digital due to the pandemic.

Instead, the new 1.4 million square foot West Hall is eerily empty, Hill said.

Hotels that billed over $ 400 per night for rooms during the week of CES 2020 have announced rates between $ 25 and $ 45 this year, according to Hotels.com data tracked by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. . Some hotels, including the Mirage and Encore in Wynn, have even closed rooms midweek due to low demand.

The expectation of both visitors and CES organizers authority is for the event to return to Las Vegas in 2022 and beyond. Although it will probably be a little different when he returns.

“The future of events will most likely include a digital component,” officials from the Consumer Technology Association, which hosts CES, said in a statement. “The events industry has had to innovate throughout this pandemic, change its business models and adapt to our new circumstances.

On Monday night, more than two dozen marquees at properties along the famous Las Vegas Strip were lit with the message: “We miss you, CES. I look forward to welcoming you back in 2022.”

And on Twitter, the CES 2021 account returned the favor, tweeting: “I’m homesick, but we’ll see you soon @Vegas.”
On Monday, more than a dozen marquees along the Las Vegas Strip were lit with the message: `` We miss you, CES. I look forward to welcoming you back in 2022. & quot;

‘All bets are raised’

The US Travel Association, citing data from research firm Tourism Economics, estimates that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused cumulative losses of $ 500 billion to the country’s travel economy since March, causing an estimated impact of $ 64.4 billion in federal, state and local taxes. returned.
While leisure travel is expected to fuel the recovery in travel and tourism, these trips are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022, Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics said during a webinar from the US Travel Association in December. It will likely take until 2024 or later for business and business travel to make a full return, he said.

For cities like Las Vegas to see significant economic improvement, people will need to feel comfortable traveling again, being indoors again and ready to spend money, said John Restrepo, director of RCG Economics, based in Las Vegas.

And until vaccinations are widespread, “all bets are off,” Restrepo said.

Nevada’s lack of industry diversification is likely to hamper employment recovery, just as it did after the Great Recession, he said. After the 2008 downturn, it took the state nine years to surpass its pre-recession jobs numbers.

This time around, Restrepo predicts that it will take at least three years for the state to reach the constant annual growth rates seen in major economic indicators before the pandemic strikes. It will take even longer to return to actual levels of employment, sales taxes, gambling revenues and convention delegates.

“It’s going to be a long task to get out of this rut ​​here in southern Nevada,” he said.



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