Supporters of the mining project say it will bring lost jobs back to the US and ensure access to natural resources necessary for a 21st-century economy.

“I’d say that access to critical minerals and metals is (like) oil in today’s global economy,” Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at the University of Nevada, tells TRT World.

Developing mines of these critical minerals will give “more leverage” to President Trump in his ongoing trade negotiations with foreign countries, he says.

“The mining industry in the US is not your grandfather’s mining with a pickaxe and shovel. It’s very complex, sophisticated, well-paid, and greener compared to (mining in) other parts of the world. Its importance is only going to grow.”.

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During July, Las Vegas added 4,200 job but with jobs added, why aren’t locals getting hired? FOX5 is getting answers from a new UNLV report.

UNLV researchers have studied local employment trends for decades but say the Nevada Job Seeker Survey is different, asking unemployed individuals directly about trying to find a job. Many say they are having a hard time.

UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research closely tracks Southern Nevada’s economic indicators. Their Nevada Job Seeker Survey targets Nevadans ages 18 and older who are unemployed but seeking employment.

New unemployment numbers from DETR show the leisure and hospitality industry saw a loss of 1,800 jobs in July.

The survey found more than half of respondents (58.4%) wanted to change industries favoring hospitality, transportation, and administrative roles.

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New survey findings from the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) reveal the critical challenges Nevada job seekers faced as they attempted to re-enter the workforce in 2024, including mismatches between job preferences and available roles, transportation barriers, and gaps in training and certification access.

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The Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV surveyed more than 300 Nevadans who self-identified as unemployed and seeking a job. The results, released this week, suggest there are disconnects between the jobs people desire, the ones they are qualified for, and what’s actually available.

The center, which worked on the Nevada Job Seeker Survey with the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation, believes the insights could be useful as the state “continues to navigate post-pandemic economy recovery and braces for more economic uncertainty ahead.”

The survey indicated that over half of job seekers want to work in a different industry than the last job they held, but that they aren’t eyeing the most rapidly growing fields. Transportation, hospitality, and administration were the desired industries. The survey did not document what industries workers had left.

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Local politicians have good reason to be anxious about the Canadian travel boycott, said Stephen Miller, an economics professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

As the director of the university’s business and economic research centre, he crunched the numbers and found Canadians contributed $3.6 billion US to the local economy last year.

Canadian spending supported some 43,000 jobs in the region, more than those employed in the manufacturing sector, Miller said.

That $3.6-billion figure comes close to the economic output of the local Nellis Air Force base — and that’s saying something, given it’s one of the largest and most important military installations in the U.S., with some 15,000 personnel.

“The Canadian numbers have gone down dramatically and it’s an area of concern for the casinos,” Miller said. “After all, the main goal of the resort industry is to put heads in beds.”

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The number of unemployed individuals in the Las Vegas MSA reached 72,698, an increase of 4,474 since May 2025, but 691 fewer than in June 2024.

“Leisure and hospitality grew the slowest. Then professional business services are second, so those two sectors are declining shares of the total economy,” Stephen Miller, Research Director for the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV said.

The labor force in Las Vegas has also seen some changes, increasing to 1,245,482 in June 2025, a rise from 1,245,263 in May 2025 and up 28,782 since June 2024. This indicates a growing workforce in the area, despite the slight increase in the unemployment rate.

Professor Stephen Miller attributes this persistence to a restructuring economy. While tourism rebounds, former hospitality workers are still transitioning to different career paths.

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A new survey from the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) highlights the challenges Nevada job seekers faced in 2024, including mismatches between job preferences and available roles, transportation barriers and gaps in training and certification access.

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“It’s really important to put into perspective how important leisure and hospitality are to our economy,” Andrew Woods, the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told The Daily Upside. “Here in Clark County, it’s about one in four jobs, and a third of GDP.”

Last year ended on an optimistic note. The city drew 41.6 million visitors, a 2.1% increase that brought it ever so close to pre-pandemic levels. International arrivals at Harry Reid International Airport, the primary flight hub for the Las Vegas Valley, rose 14% year-over-year to 2.7 million (still trailing the 3.8 million in 2019). This helped Nevada set a record for annual casino revenue for the fourth year in a row, with nearly $16 billion.

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What happens in Las Vegas matters on a national scale because it often reflects larger trends, according to Andrew Woods,  the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“It tends to be a signal for potentially where the economy’s headed,” he said.

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The Las Vegas Strip is seen looking south from Flamingo Road in this March 24, 2023, photo. The next president won’t immediately affect the path of gaming and tourism in Las Vegas, said Andrew Woods, an economist and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV.

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