Everyone inside America’s most flailing destination city has a theory for what’s wrong. Now I have my own.

Las Vegas tourism is projected to rebound in 2026 by one million visitors after a slowdown this year. In addition, a panel of experts told the city’s business leaders that sports will continue to help drive visitation to the city, along with resorts lowering prices and creating more value.

In breaking ranks to end the federal government shutdown this week, Nevada’s two Democratic senators showcased the shifting politics of the once solidly blue state, home to a diverse, working-class population that relies heavily on tourism. In the national battle for party expansion, Republicans have the edge in the Silver State.

Southern Nevada’s economy is showing signs of distress but remains steady as businesses and analysts adjust, according to the latest outlook from UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, released at the group’s annual conference Thursday.

Southern Nevada is expected to add the equivalent of Henderson’s population in the next decade, and the unemployment rate, as well as growth, is expected to stabilize, according to a report from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Amid an ongoing dip in gaming and visitor numbers in Las Vegas, questions have continued to swirl about our local economy.

Only one job sector’s real wage in Clark County has kept up with the rate of inflation since the end of the pandemic, leading to the region’s growing affordability gap, according to a UNLV economist. And it’s not the hospitality sector, which drives the region’s economy.

Since the early 2000s, a fall in employment in the state of Nevada has preceded a broader U.S. recession. It makes sense why—the economic fortunes of Las Vegas, which make up a big part of the state’s overall economy, are intimately tied to consumers’ comfort with spending. Host Alex Ossola speaks with Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, about what the state data shows now, and what it says about the health of the U.S. economy. This is part one of our four-part series on alternative economic indicators.