Fact Pack!

By Hightower Las Vegas and RCG Economics on February 2, 2024

December saw more U.S. job openings than November: 

As of December 2023 

January’s jobs numbers (+353,000) exceeded forecasts: 

As of 2/2/24 

However, the nation’s high-pay hiring heyday appears to be over, at least for now, per Bloomberg: 

As of December 2023 

Savings 

American consumers are saving less money than they did prior to the pandemic, relative to their disposable incomes. The rate has been trending lower since last spring: 

As of December 2023 

Gas Prices 

Fuel prices across the country as of Friday: 

Prices in Nevada remain among the highest in the country (only California, Washington state and Hawaii have higher gas prices): 

Mapping Family Budgets 

We often note when citing national or regional averages that economic metrics can and often do vary widely from metro to metro, and county to county, so it should surprise no one that the amount of money needed to run a household is far greater in some areas than others. If you’re curious about the details, the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator measures the income a family needs in to attain a “modest yet adequate” standard of living in every county in the U.S. 

Map: 

Source: Economic Policy Institute as of December 2023 

Some Nevada numbers (all as of December 2023): 

(Note: The EPI budgets estimate community-specific costs for 10 family types, consisting of one or two adults with zero to four children. Read more about the methodology here.) 

Federal Budget 

As for the country’s budget… 

As of December 2023 

Federal spending has increased by $171 billion over last year (Oct 2022 – Dec 2022). 

White Swan? 

Nassim Nicholas Taleb made global bestseller waves when he published The Black Swan in 2007. Now he’s warning of a white swan (defined as a risk that is somewhat more probable): a catastrophe-in-waiting in the form of the federal budget deficit. 

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and BlackRock Vice Chairman Philipp Hildebrand also recently expressed concern about debt and the U.S. dollar’s global status.  

Gaming Win 

Nevada’s nonrestricted gaming licensees reported a total gaming win of $1,432,633,317 for the month of December 2023, a 9.04 percent increase from December 2022. The state collected $84,924,974 in percentage fees in January 2024, a 27.27 percent increase compared to 2022. 

By market: 

As of December 2023 

Notable December 2023 vs. December 2022 win numbers: 

• The Las Vegas Strip was up 11.20 percent. 
• Carson Valley was up by 13.51 percent. 
• Elko County was up 14.96 percent. 
• Reno was down (-7.21 percent). 

Viva LAS 

Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) set a new annual passenger record for the second consecutive year, serving 57.6 million travelers in 2023. The previous record of 52.6 million was set in 2022. The number of passengers on international flights surpassed the 3 million passenger threshold for the first time since 2019 with 3.2 million. 

October 2023 set the record for busiest month ever at LAS with 5.4 million passengers, and December’s numbers were 10.2 percent higher than in 2022:  

It’s Zuckerberg’s World. We’re All Just Living in It. 

Plagued by not-great press for the Metaverse rollout, along with whispers that “Facebook is no longer cool”, Zuckerberg’s platform ended 2023 with 3.07 billion monthly active users, an increase of 3 percent – or more than a 100 million users – from a year ago. (Notably, Facebook has never seen a year-over-year drop in active users.) 

And though the Metaverse itself did not exactly win hearts and minds when it comes to users, business is thriving: Meta blew past analyst expectations in the fourth quarter, reporting a new revenue record of $40.1 billion, 96 percent of which came from advertising — up 25 percent from last year’s December. The company’s profit more than tripled year-over-year to $14 billion.  

As of December 2023 

Golf 

Numbers exceeding those of the “Tiger Boom” (1999-2001) were logged at America’s golf courses in 2023, as the number of rounds played nationwide trended up: More than 531 million rounds were played at U.S. golf courses last year: 

As of December 2023 

Stat Pack LIVE! 

Each year, we are pleased to accept assorted invitations to talk about economics to groups interested in staying informed about the state of play in Nevada, the nation and around the world. Last week, we shared a variety of information with active members of the Henderson Chamber of Commerce, including this graph that debunks the claim that there is an advantage to investing during a particular political party’s control of the White House: 

Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research as of 2023 

As you can see, growth over time does not substantially vary no matter who is president. 

Interested in booking us for an economic overview for your employees or group? Email John at jrestrepo@rcgecon.com or Mike at mpequeen@hightowerlasvegas.com to discuss details. 

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On the Horizon 

Mike PeQueen: Next week several Fed governors will be making public remarks which have the potential to roil the markets.  

This week’s MarketWatch calendar: