Monica Pappas runs Fingerprinting Express in Las Vegas, a business that provides fingerprinting background checks.

But she says the past few months have been far from easy--particularly with finding staff.

"Before the pandemic, in 24 hours here in southern Nevada, I would get 500 applications of applicants to pull from," she said. "This week I posted a job add and I got 11 in 24 hours."

She says it's even impacting business operations.

"We did have to reduce some hours, it's really is taking a toll," she said. "And the staff we do have is working twice as hard."

Her struggles were reflected in part with the federal government's job report released early Friday. The data shows while unemployment is rebounding to low levels not seen since before the pandemic, the economy still added fewer jobs in December than expected.

The Biden administration highlighted the figure of unemployment dipping under 4 percent, to 3.9 in December. The last time the U.S. saw rates like that was February 2020's 3.5.

President Biden also lauded wage increases for many industries like tourism and hospitality. Tourism and Hospitality, the backbone of the Las Vegas economy, led job gains with a modest 53,000 jobs nationwide.

"Workers in some of America's toughest jobs, women and men who work in the front line jobs in restaurants, hotels, travel, tourism, desk clerks, line cooks, wait, staff bellman--they all saw their wages at a historic high highest in history," he said in a speech Friday.

UNLV Economics Professor Stephen Miller says it shows a shift in the market.

"The workers have now seized a bit larger position in terms of their power in relation to their employers," he said. "So this is the time to look for work."

But another takeaway from the report, only 199,000 jobs were added to the economy last month. Less than half of what the Dow Jones estimate of 422,000 was.

Miller admits it might seem counterintuitive that fewer jobs were created, yet unemployment dropped. But he points out the pandemic has taken several people out of the workplace. (Part of what he at The Center for Business and Economic Research have dubbed "The Great Reavaluation" or some have referred to as the "Great Resignation").

He says some people may still fear returning to work with health concerns among the pandemic, others are still grappling with child care after remote learning, and some---including many Baby Boomers---have decided to retire early. Those who actively aren't looking for work are not counted in unemployment figures.

As for Monica, she says she's made a few changes to remain competitive as a small business including raising her rates.

She says she offers full benefits, 401k, and pays 100 percent of the benefit premium. Now, she says she's brainstorming ways to find and pitch candidates on other perks.

"We are seeing a lot of people are now desiring to work from home or have very limited hours. We are trying to see how we can pivot and work with that," she said. "We offer career advancement opportunities here and that's enticing to some people."