A snapshot of Nevada’s economy ahead of GOP caucuses
It’s the quintessential election question: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
So, what would the answer be for residents of Nevada?
“In Nevada, you’re probably better off than you were in 2012,” said Alan Berube, a senior fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. “You’re probably not better off than you were in 2008.”
Nevada’s economy has improved. It’s one of the top states for job creation, and its unemployment rate is half what it once was.
But remember, “We were ground zero for the Great Recession,” said Stephen Miller, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
He said Nevada’s unemployment rate is still over 6 percent. That’s above the national average.
And some Nevada homeowners are still underwater. Owing more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.
“We’re number one in this bad category,” Miller said. “It’s a little bit over 20 percent.”
But Miller said things still look positive for Nevada. That is, as long as the global economy’s problems don’t lead to another recession in the U.S.
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