To Governor Brian Sandoval, his New Nevada is a state with high-paying jobs, filled by an ever-increasing number of college graduates.
But the reality is an economy still predicated on the service industry.
So, what does that mean for a state that just raised taxes by $1.1 billion to improve our education system?
And, is being an economy that creates so many service sectors jobs a bad thing?
Hugh Jackson, a freelance writer in Las Vegas, talked to KNPR's State of Nevada about his latest piece in the June issue of Desert Companion magazine: "About Those Exciting Jobs of Tomorrow: Many of Them Will Still Involve French Fries."
Jackson said more people are in service industry jobs because that is simple where the jobs are.
"It is just how our economy is," he said "It is how it is structured. Our entire nation has moved increasingly to a service economy over the last several decades."
According to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR), there will be more demand for waiter and waitress and retail sales positions in Nevada in 2015 than all of the jobs that require a bachelor degree or above combined.
Jackson said Nevada is at the forefront of the transition to a service economy because of its historical hospitality industry.
However, he doesn't think the transition is a bad thing. He believes the problem is that workers in these positions are not given the wages, benefits and job stability they deserve.
"There seems to be a complete neglect that they are in fact a crucial part of the state's future," Jackson said. "Instead, everyone is focused on shiny object of Tesla, or manufacturing, or high tech, or creating new apps."
Jackson compares service industry workers with factory workers in the 20th Century. There was a time when factory workers were looked down on, paid low wages and given few benefits.
However, Jackson said, when the economy started to rely more heavily on those jobs there was more respect for those jobs. By the time the 50s and 60s rolled around, factory workers were considered the backbone of the economy.
"We didn't demean factory workers," Jackson said. "We didn't look down on factory workers."
But now, people working in the service industry are considered to be working a 'dead end job.'
"There needs to be an end to this popular demeaning of people who are in these jobs," Jackson explained. "There needs to be a restoration of dignity for people who are working."
Jackson believes there are policy changes that could be made on the local, state and national level to improve working conditions for the service industry.
"They need to acknowledge the actual economy that we have right now and start paying attention to that," he said. "These people deserve to be making more money."
Even with changes in pay and benefits, Jackson believes the real problem is the perception that these workers are lazy or uneducated.
"We are still going to have a huge swath of our workforce in these jobs are we okay to have them making poverty or near-poverty wages?" he asked.
Hugh Jackson, freelance writer