According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in August 2025, the national unemployment rate for the United States was 4.3%. While 22,000 new jobs were added in August, led by job gains in the healthcare industry, this did little to offset those who lost work in career fields related to oil, gas, and mining, as well as the mass layoff of federal employees.

Las Vegas is experiencing increasing turbulence, not on the casino floors, but in the skies above. Harry Reid International Airport faced delays or cancellations on more than a quarter of all scheduled flights on Monday, leaving thousands of travelers stranded and tourism-dependent local businesses bracing for an economic hit.

Las Vegas is bracing for another hit to its already struggling tourism industry. The city’s main airport is one of the 40 airports the Federal Aviation Administration directed to cancel up to 10% of its flights to relieve pressure on unpaid air traffic controllers due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Like much of the rest of the country, inflation has fully arrived in Las Vegas. A July 2025 report from the local Las Vegas news station, KTNV, dove into just how hard locals are being hit by the cost of living increases that have been ramping up nationwide since January.

Washington is bracing for a government shutdown as federal agencies prepare to halt non-essential operations at midnight. Stephen M. Miller, a professor of economics, explained the potential consequences for local residents, particularly veterans who rely on federal services.

The economic impact on the local economy is hard to overstate. Canadians pumped $3.6 billion into the Southern Nevada economy and supported more than 43,000 jobs, notes UNLV economics professor Stephen Miller. When Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) joined a bipartisan delegation to Ottawa in July to make nice with Prime Minister Mark Carney following Trump’s blustering insults about making Canada the 51st state, it was a reminder of what’s at stake. It’s hard enough to do business in a competitive marketplace when the president is bent on driving away customers.

The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point Wednesday and projected it would do so twice more this year as concern grows at the central bank about the health of the nation's labor market.

This summer, other border states are experiencing a different kind of drought: a dearth of Canadians. Vermont to Canada border crossings were down nearly 39% in July from the year prior, per data compiled by the state. According to Statistics Canada, Canadian spending in the US plunged 7.9% in the first quarter of 2025 from the same time in the year prior. (Ironically, in the same period, Americans made more trips to Canada than the year prior, and spent 27.3% more.)