Nevada workforce is expanding thanks to AI boom, diversifying economy

A sparsely-populated state known for its world-class casinos and dry desert climate has been a bright spot in the tepid U.S. job market.

Nevada’s workforce grew 1.9% from April 2025 to 2026, the highest of any state, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, that rate inched up just 0.2% over the same period.

About 12% of new jobs in the U.S. were created in Nevada during those 12 months, data shows. That’s an outsized gain for the Silver State, which houses only about 1% of the national population.

Economic leaders in Nevada say their success is the culmination of years of work to diversify business activity beyond gambling and entertainment. Home to 3.3 million residents, Nevada has long benefited from its proximity to California and is increasingly becoming a hub for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Economically, Nevada is “a relatively small state being mentioned in the same breath as California, Texas, Florida,” said David Schmidt, chief economist in the state’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. The jobs market, in particular, is putting up “really remarkable numbers that we’re seeing.”

‘Widespread’ workforce growth

In the past year, Nevada saw the most growth in professional and business services roles, which Schmidt attributed to favorable state tax policies. Education and health services positions were also a top contributor, part of the national trend of health care driving job gains.

Companies have long sought out Nevada for new or expanded mines, these days driven by bountiful supplies of lithium, a key component in batteries used to help run AI models, Schmidt said. And Nevada’s 110,000-square miles offers large swaths of open land attractive for building AI-related infrastructure such as data centers, the economist said.

One of the few signs of contraction in the Nevada labor economy came in government jobs, which fell over the past year, holding back what would have been an even stronger expansion. Even there, however, Schmidt said Nevada was less affected than other states by President Trump’s effort to curb government hiring, due to its small number of federal workers.

At first glance, Nevada’s labor market strength is surprising given softness in the state’s iconic gambling industry. The Las Vegas Strip’s largest casinos collectively saw revenues decline nearly 4% between the fiscal 2024 and 2025 years, according to data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board released this month.

But the economy of the Las Vegas metro area — home to the lion’s share of the state’s population — has grown increasingly less reliant on gaming. An analysis of federal data found that about 60% of new jobs in the region from 2016 to 2025 came in industries outside of hospitality, construction and government, the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance told CNBC.

“Looking at the data, the thing that stands out the most is how widespread the growth is,” Schmidt said.

Nevada is bucking what economists have described as a national “jobless boom,” and a “low hire, low fire” employment market. Now, the national labor market may be thawing, however: Nonfarm payroll growth was more than double what Wall Street forecast in May. The BLS is slated to release the most recent breakdown of state-by-state employment next week.

‘Untapped’ talent pool

Nevada-based job listings have ballooned about 20% compared with February 2020, while the national number has grown approximately 2%, according to Indeed, an online job site. Staffing agency ManpowerGroup found that demand for workers has held up better in Nevada than in the average state during the second quarter.

The bulk of the hiring in Nevada may be coming from larger companies, according to Gusto, a payroll platform for small- and mid-sized businesses that told CNBC its net hiring rate came in lower for Nevada than the rest of the country.

For all the apparent growth, however, Nevada’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is above the national average, a possible reflection of an expanding workforce that has been recovering ever since the Covid pandemic, according to Stephen Miller, an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“We had so many people that were unemployed” starting in 2020, Miller said. “We’re still catching up.”

A burgeoning workforce is evident in Nevada’s higher-than-average labor force participation rate — a measure of the working-age population employed or looking for work. That’s a positive for employers looking to fill expand in the state, Schmidt said.

LV Petroleum CEO Kris Roach has seen that story play out as he’s brought on hundreds of workers in the past year to staff the company’s restaurants and travel centers.

Roach found it “very easy” to find staff, sometimes receiving more than 100 applications for a managerial opening. There’s also ample white-collar workers — some previously employed at Las Vegas casinos — to hire for jobs in areas like finance and human resources at LV Petroleum’s expanding corporate office.

“It’s a great state to operate in,” Roach said. “There’s so much untapped talent.”

Beyond the Strip

Nevada needs to actively woo business and attract workers in order to continue leading in job growth, local economic advocates said.

The Sun Belt state’s population has boomed in recent decades, which economists link partly to its proximity to California. Nevada’s resident population soared more than 62% from 2000 to 2025, far outpacing the roughly 21% increase seen nationally, federal data shows.

One new resident is Emma Keserich, who arrived in Las Vegas last summer from the Washington, D.C., area. Metropolitan Washington, including the Virginia and Maryland suburbs, has lost thousands of jobs as of a result of Trump’s federal government efficiency initiatives.

At first, Keserich was surprised by the number of families and nearby natural attractions in a region known for its entertainment hub. Keserich plays up short commute times and relative affordability when pitching the region to businesses as a vice president of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance.

Nevada’s cost of living was lower than neighboring states including California, Idaho and Arizona in the first quarter, a Missouri-based government researcher found. Average hourly pay in Nevada climbed nearly 6% from 2024 to 2025, the fifth biggest increase of any state, according to a CNBC analysis of BLS data.

“People think Las Vegas is just the Strip,” Keserich said. “There’s just more than what meets the eye.”