Events and entertainment workers gather to bring attention to their labor and unemployment on August 19, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In response to the pandemic, as state and county-wide shutdowns went into effect, businesses small and large shuttered. In 2019, on average Las Vegas saw over 3.5 million visitors a month, in April 2020 there were just over 100,000. Chains were wrapped around casino doors and shops were boarded up. Restaurants, malls, clubs and casino floors were left empty, no patrons nor workers. Hundreds of thousands of Las Vegans were left unemployed. While there were no lines for bathrooms on convention floors nor traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard, residents queued at food pantries and protested for a reopening. Months into the shutdown, properties along the Strip began to open to masked patrons at record-low occupancies, and some workers began to come back to work. More than to years later, Las Vegas workers and the economy still fight to find a solid footing.
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