By Sage Sauerbrey, Moonshine Ink

From timber to tourism, Tahoe/Truckee has always had a mono-economy. Other industries can and have thrived — construction had a heyday following the Olympics, and the last decade has marked the success of more than a handful of local technology businesses and start-ups, but in spite of opportunities for growth in other sectors this area is actually more dependent on tourism than it was 10 years ago.

When the recession hit in 2008, tourism accounted for 42 percent of the regional economy in the Tahoe Basin, but by 2015 that ratio had grown to 62 percent, according to data compiled by the Tahoe Prosperity Center. The center’s CEO, Heidi Hill Drum, said that these numbers likely run parallel to data describing Truckee as well.

Diversity is the word of the day. Not only is there a pronounced industrial imbalance regionally, but that imbalance favors a volatile and fluctuating market. Data compiled in the 2016 Regional Housing Study shows that the number of local jobs in the arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food service sectors plummeted from 8,078 in January 2014 (peak season) to 4,709 in May 2014 (shoulder season).

Read the whole story