Nevada’s construction industry contributed $20.8 billion to the state’s GDP in 2024, or about 7.8% of its total output, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That share was the second largest in the U.S. behind Utah.
Today, however, many Nevada workers are too busy hunting for their next gig to celebrate that milestone. According to a September report from the Associated General Contractors of America, the Silver State led the nation in the percentage of construction jobs it lost through August, with 7,100 fewer positions marking a 6.4% year-over-year decrease. Approximately 4,400 jobs were lost between July and August alone.
Depending on who you ask, the root causes for this shift can differ. Residential homebuilders have taken a hit this year due to slower home sales that have kept properties on the market for longer periods, while commercial tradesmen are increasingly dependent on a handful of big-ticket projects like the A’s stadium and the new Hard Rock Hotel to stay afloat.
Meanwhile, adjacent developments like an ongoing tourism slump and higher material costs associated with the Trump Administration’s tariff policies have permeated the entire industry.
“With supply costs, we were finally starting to see some stabilization from COVID in the last year and a half, but the tariffs kind of put everything back up in the air,” Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions chief of staff Aarón Ibarra tells the Weekly.
Of the 25,000 workers from 19 local unions represented by the SNBTU, Ibarra says roughly 2,000 are out of work today, while another 1,000 are temporarily employed out of state. Although that’s less than the 4,000 members that were sidelined in 2024, Ibarra thinks it’s too early to tell when the current uncertainties will subside.
“The thing about construction is that you’re always working yourself out of a job. And the last two years have been tough because we essentially finished the Sphere, Fontainebleau and the Durango at the same time,” Ibarra says. “Now, second-tier trades like tile setters and insulators, are struggling because they come in at the end of a project. But then you also have this cycle where they’ll start after the building is up, but iron workers start to struggle. You don’t always know when the next job is going to come around.”
On the residential side, Southern Nevada Home Builders Association (SNHBA) CEO Tina Frias attributes the recent “softening” of the local housing market to a combination of higher interest rates and material costs, decreased consumer confidence and restrictive building codes.
While she expects the market to “do better” in the second half of 2026, Frias also refers to a 2022 Applied Analysis study—conducted at the request of the SNHBA—that found that Southern Nevada’s rapid population growth could lead the region to run out of land for new home construction by 2032 if policymakers don’t open up some of the 88% of Clark County’s land that’s owned and managed by the federal government. She says advocating for that expansion is paramount in the long term.
Vincent Tatum, president of the local firm Grand Canyon Development Partners, acknowledges that local job opportunities have slowed down, but remains optimistic that the numbers will “pick back up” soon.
“That cyclical nature is no different than this city, which is often based on transient types or tourism and more susceptible to those factors than other major markets. Construction, then, is going to follow those trends,” he says.
Still, Tatum says the field’s aging workforce could pose a problem down the road if industry leaders can’t replenish that talent through trade schools and developmental programs. He says many local workers either left the field altogether or relocated to out-of-state markets following major events like the Great Recession of 2008 and the pandemic, adding that more recent competition with other industries has only added to those vacancies.
“When you design a project, you’re using tools and software that are similar to what’s used to make video games. So, we’ve had people leaving the engineering and design trades to work in the film or video game industries, and those jobs never really get backfilled,” he says.
Tatum’s concerns recently led him to partner with the Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB)—the state agency responsible for licensing and regulating contractors—for its In the Field Trip event on November 17. There, he helped guide 100 local students from both the Southeast and East Career & Technical Academies through a tour of three local construction sites.
Afterwards, NSCB executive officer David Behar moderated a Q&A session between students and a panel of industry experts. The inaugural event was spurred by the NSCB’s Commission on Construction Education, which he calls “one of the best things we do that nobody knows enough about.”
“We need to replenish an aging workforce, and this was one way for us to let students know the trades are very important and also very diverse,” Behar says. “The industry keeps evolving through new technologies, and there’s a seat at the table for just about anything somebody has a desire to go into, from the architecture and planning to building and management.”
Though Ibarra is supportive of these efforts, plus adjacent apprenticeship programs sponsored by the SNBTU, he says another key is to continue to encourage local municipalities to prioritize existing local workers, rather than hiring hands from out-of-state.
“Our local contractor preference is oftentimes overlooked because they’re usually just looking for the lowest bidder. But our unions helped build this city, including the Hoover Dam, and we keep those wages in Nevada because we have our roots here,” he says. “Water and electricity doesn’t turn on without our families who have been here since the very beginning, and we need to make sure they’re taken care of.”
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