By Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir
LAS VEGAS/RENO, Nevada (Reuters) – The cracks in the labor market in Las Vegas and across Nevada have typically appeared early and widened fast when the U.S. economy soured, making the consumer-driven city and state a bellwether of sorts for the rest of the country.
By that measure, as the Federal Reserve heads towards a momentous shift to interest rate cuts this week, business owners, labor leaders, and economists in Nevada see few obvious signs of trouble. Indeed, in a state critical to the outcome of a U.S. presidential election in November that may well turn on pocketbook issues, they see plenty of evidence of an economy moving beyond high inflation without an employment-crushing recession: The Fed’s longed-for “soft landing.”
At a glance, Nevada’s 5.4% unemployment rate, which is the highest among the 50 states and more than a percentage point above the national rate, might call such confidence into question. But that’s roughly where joblessness has been for nearly three years in this southwestern state with little indication of breaking higher as it often has heading into periods of national economic turbulence.