As a heavily tourism-dependent economy, Southern Nevada is often placed in a perilous position when consumer discretionary spending falls during times of recession. To mitigate the impact economic downturns can have on the region and the state, business and community leaders have turned towards economic diversification to build a more resilient economy. Increasingly, these efforts have focused on the manufacturing industry.

To date, this focus on manufacturing has delivered results across the state. Tesla's $5 billion lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in the Reno-Sparks area has energized the Northern Nevada economy since opening in 2016. In Southern Nevada, Haas Automation, the world’s leader in making computer controlled machines for manufacturers, is building a $327 million manufacturing facility in Henderson that will eventually support over 1,400 high-wage jobs; Ball Metal recently announced a $176 million investment in North Las Vegas for an aluminum product manufacturing facility; and Sunshine Minting, a leading manufacturer of products for the minting industry, expanded its operation in 2017 to 100 employees with plans to add an additional 200 jobs over the next five years. These and other manufacturing investments have nearly doubled the industry’s contribution to Nevada’s gross domestic product since the end of the Great Recession. Further, Nevada’s manufacturing sector employment has added 26,800 jobs and manufacturing’s share of total employment has increased by 31.8 percent over this period.

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