By Jack Rogers – businessfacilities.com
From the May/June 2018 Issue
Tesla’s 5-million-square-foot Gigafactory, the world’s largest lithium battery production facility, is drawing other top tech players to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. (Photo: thedrive.com)
If we ranked the states that got clobbered the worst in the Great Recession, Nevada would be at or near the top of the list. The collapse of the housing market was a crushing blow to Nevada’s economy, as it was in neighboring California and on the other side of the country in Florida.
But if we look at the flip side and rank the states that mounted the most impressive recoveries from the fiscal collapse, Nevada also is at the top of the list. The depth of the economic crater Nevada fell into—the state’s unemployment rate hit a staggering 14.5 percent in December 2010—makes its climb back to prosperity nothing short of remarkable.
Nevada did much more than simply ride the rising tide of the national recovery. To put it simply, the Silver State reinvented itself. In an exclusive interview with BF, Gov. Brian Sandoval credited an aggressive economic development strategy as the critical component that turbocharged NV’s rebound.
“The recession and the loss of roughly 184,000 jobs forced us to change our approach to economic development,” Sandoval said. “Our economic development objectives are to catalyze innovation in core and emerging industries, to execute our plan for technology-based growth and to work with industry to prepare sector acceleration plans.”
Nevada’s focus on technology-based growth has drawn an all-star team of top tech players to the state, including Apple, Tesla, eBay, Switch, Amazon and Hyperloop One. But Gov. Sandoval wants you to know that this tech transformation has not been achieved at the expense of NV’s traditional status as the nation’s gaming mecca and a top tourism destination.
“Economic diversification does not mean abandoning our traditional sectors of tourism, mining and agriculture. Rather, other industries have expanded to establish a broader economic foundation,” Sandoval told BF.
By just about any economic indicator, Nevada’s robust economy is in a leadership position.
“Today, Nevada leads the nation in private-sector job growth. We’re ranked No. 1 in personal income growth and second in population growth,” Sandoval said. “A record 1,373,700 Nevadans are now working. That’s 261,100 more jobs than the recessionary low, and these jobs are spread across a more diverse industry mix.
Read the rest of the story at businessfacilities.com.