Las Vegas continues to capture the world's imagination as the city where anything is possible-- with world-class hotels, award-winning restaurants, luxurious resorts, fantastic shopping and spectacular entertainment. Most importantly, the Las Vegas metro area is home to more than 2.2 million residents who continue to build this community.
A hallmark of Las Vegas is its constant growth and reinvention, as it remains the world’s destination. The new mega resorts, performance spaces, residential construction and exciting city-funded projects rise out of the desert landscape thanks to the skilled labor force that resides in Las Vegas.
Here’s an amazing statistic. Did you know 95 percent of the city of Las Vegas-funded construction projects completed over the last three years were done by workers from Southern Nevada? Another two percent of the work was done by Nevadans who live outside the local area, bringing the total to 97 percent from in state!
All of this translates into work for about 14,000 individual construction trade workers and more than 4.2 million hours worked on city-funded projects over the last six years! In that same time period, about $200 million in gross wages were paid. Those impressive numbers include the use of both journeyman and apprentice workers. In fact, apprentices make up about 10 percent of the workforce on all these city-funded projects. This helps ensure that the next generation of skilled trades and craftworkers will be ready when needed.
Beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, the Apprentice Utilization Act was implemented in Nevada. This requires contractors to make an annual report to the State Office of Labor to guarantee apprentice compliance numbers are met.
Another interesting statistic is that Hispanic workers in Southern Nevada make up about half of the skilled labor force building these exciting city of Las Vegas-funded projects. Nearly all are from the local area, which means the vast majority of the wages they earn remain here in Southern Nevada.
As new projects continue to be built in the urban core’s flourishing and exciting downtown districts, the city is committed to continuing a decades-old partnership with local labor to achieve our goal of being a world-class city. With city projects such as Civic Plaza under construction across from City Hall at Main St. and Clark Ave.; and private projects in Symphony Park, the Las Vegas Medical District, the 18b Las Vegas Arts District, the Fremont East Entertainment District, East Las Vegas and the Historic Westside including a new workforce training center; the city’s core continues to evolve and grow thanks to the work of our residents. Additionally, outside the core our team is working on so many exciting projects including new fire stations, police substations, community centers, parks and so much more.
We live in a beautiful, energetic and diverse city. Our differences create a tapestry that makes our city such a special place. The city mirrors our community providing a diverse array of services, events and programing for our residents to enjoy. As new projects are designed and built, we continue to rely on our diverse community to bring its skills to the forefront to keep Las Vegas a top destination and a beautiful place to live, work and play.