Positive Trends in Vegas

The LVRJ published the UNLV composite Index of Leading Indicators today:

There’s plenty not to like here, such as the big drop in passengers through McCarran, but I’m cheered by the 100% increase in home sales. Another interesting point is that total employment is up over a year ago. Not by much. A year ago there were 923k jobs and now there are 924k jobs. It’s important to realize that although the unemployment rate has jumped, that’s more a testament to the fact that people keep moving to Vegas than a statement on meaningful job losses. The 5,714 new residents is also pretty impressive. That’s really not much less than we were getting in 2006.