‘We are still struggling’: Las Vegas economy is a funhouse mirror of the strange US conditions
In the rotating restaurant at the top of the Strat hotel and casino, guests can once again enjoy $20 cocktails or a $90 shellfish display for two while taking in the expansive views of downtown Las Vegas from its landmark tower. After the Covid shutdown, Vegas is back in business. But not everyone seems happy, or sure how long it will last.
On a recent afternoon, just out of view of the hotel’s 1,000-plus feet (350-metre) spike, a couple of hundred hospitality service workers were gathered in a nearby car park. In baking 90F ( 32C) heat, speakers told the workers that they must fight to get improved contracts and controls for soaring rents. “Sí, se puede” – yes, we can – they shouted outside the headquarters of Nevada’s powerful Culinary Workers Union.
While the housekeepers, chefs and other workers sang and chanted through the meeting, there was no disguising a deep sense of anger about their working conditions and the direction of the economy.
A cursory scan of Nevada’s economic statistics would suggest that life has got better recently for its members. Unemployment hit 30% in Las Vegas in April 2020 when Covid closed the city down – the highest rate in the nation. Now it’s 5%, higher than the national average but still a huge improvement.
Las Vegas has been on a roll recently. Few cities were hit as hard financially by the pandemic. Now the tables are open again, gambling revenues are at new highs, hotel occupancies are climbing, conventioneers are back in town. But the mood is strained. Worker after worker said they were still feeling the effects of cuts made by their employers during the pandemic and were now suffering as inflation drove up prices and wages failed to keep up.
“Everything is going up. Gas, food, rent,
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