Las Vegas Real Estate and Business News

LAS VEGAS EMPLOYMENT: Businesses say workers lacking

Companies growing but say it takes a while to find employees

By JENNIFER ROBISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Feb. 21, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Picerne Real Estate Group will spend much of 2006 and 2007 in growth mode.

Picerne, which owns and operates 10 apartment communities in Southern Nevada, is building four new rental neighborhoods here in the next 18 months. The first development won't open until October, but Rondetta Troutman, a senior vice president at Picerne, is already hiring.

"We need the lead time because it takes a while to hire people in Las Vegas," said Troutman, who noted Picerne will add up to 25 employees to its existing local work force of about 100. "Employees have no shortage of opportunities, and there's a lot of competition for workers. There are always jobs available in Las Vegas. You have to work really hard to attract talent to yourself."

Picerne was among the 75.7 percent of businesses in the Review-Journal Business Poll that reported trouble finding the right people to fill available jobs. Industry-specific responses ranged from 72 percent in finance to 82 percent in the restaurant industry

"It's a very tight marketplace with a very short supply of viable talent, and we expect that trend to continue for the next 12 to 18 months," said Bill Werksman, managing partner of Resource Partners, a Las Vegas staffing firm. "In the manager, senior manager and executive levels, we're seeing even more urgency among employers looking for good candidates both locally and from outside Las Vegas."

Analysts say it's hard to find workers partly because the local economy is growing so quickly.

Numbers from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation show that the job base in Las Vegas is growing 7 percent a year, compared with 1.5 percent nationally. That blistering pace of work force expansion translates into significant competition among businesses for qualified workers.

But local work force availability is also a function of the national economy.

For much of the past decade, Las Vegas has led the United States in job growth. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Southern Nevada was one of a handful of regions around the country to post positive job formation; in 2003, the nation's unemployment spiked to 6.3 percent as the number of jobless people in Las Vegas fell below 5 percent. Las Vegas' standout economic performance drew tens of thousands of new residents who lost jobs in other cities and wanted to try their professional fortunes in Las Vegas.

Today, unemployment in Las Vegas is at 3.5 percent. But at 4.7 percent, the rest of the nation isn't far behind. The country's jobless rate is at its lowest since July 2001.

"If Las Vegas has a good employment rate -- especially relative to the rest of the country -- then people are drawn here," said Bengte Evenson, associate director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "As employment rates go up around the rest of the country, we expect economic migration numbers might fall off a bit as people have opportunities elsewhere."

Improved prospects in other markets could also magnify Las Vegas' rising cost of living as an issue for companies looking to recruit. Pricier houses -- the median new home now costs more than $300,000, compared with about $150,000 in 2000 -- make Las Vegas seem less of a bargain to careerists considering a move, Evenson said.

Employers who responded to the Review-Journal survey were divided on whether increasing home prices are affecting their ability to recruit.

In gaming and tourism, 53 percent of companies said higher home prices are hurting hiring, while 50 percent of employers in the retail and service sectors reported trouble recruiting. Nearly half of restaurant companies -- 46 percent -- said housing prices were creating recruiting issues, while just 35 percent of respondents in the finance sector cited real estate values as a hiring hurdle.

Picerne is not among the businesses who pointed to higher home prices as an obstacle.

Rather, sheer competition for workers is the company's biggest concern.

Salaries at Picerne range from $8.50 an hour for entry-level housekeeping and maintenance jobs to $75,000 a year for property managers. Though those salaries are competitive marketwide, Picerne must vie with Fortune 500 casino operators and myriad other service companies for porters, housekeepers and maintenance workers. Conversions of apartments to condominiums have freed up some higher-level leasing consultants and property managers, though Picerne prefers to hire from within to fill those key positions.

Troutman said job fairs have been useful for finding managers; newspaper advertising and, to a lesser extent, the Internet have brought qualified workers to Picerne for beginning housekeeping and maintenance jobs.

But the most effective recruitment tool for Picerne has been in-house referrals. Picerne pays its workers a finder's fee when they bring in candidates who become employees.

Picerne also focuses on retaining the employees it has, with events such as off-site lunches and bowling parties. It gives out quarterly sales awards as well, to "keep people motivated by knowing they're going to get recognition from within," Troutman said. Better retention means fewer trips to the labor-force well.

"If we really had a (worker) shortage, we have enough properties in Las Vegas so that we could group together to help each other with functions like maintenance," Troutman said. "But I don't think that will happen. For the most part, we've been successful. I work for a company that allows me to start looking to fill jobs early. If I had to wait until the last minute to hire, it would make me very nervous."

Economic pressures aren't the only factors hurting hiring options for local companies.

Most survey participants -- 72 percent -- said local schools and colleges are not properly preparing students for today's work force. Industry-specific results ranged from 67 percent in gaming and tourism to 100 percent in the restaurant segment.

"Among the employers we work with, one of the main things they talk about is the employability skills of the available work force," said Steven Horsford, president and chief executive officer of the Culinary Training Academy and Nevada Partners, a career-preparation agency. "They're seeing individuals who lack language skills and a basic work ethic."

In addition, Horsford said, many high-school students are missing out on technical training that would enable them to practice a specific trade.

"It's not that the schools are not trying. It's that they're not specialized enough in the areas employers are demanding," Horsford said. "We need to look at more creative ways to educate young people and get them better prepared for the work force and life in general."

Horsford said the Clark County School District's plans to build five career-technical high schools across the Las Vegas Valley would help. But he also said high schools place too much emphasis on funneling kids into college.

"College should be an option for every student, but schools should also be training students to enter apprenticeships and other postsecondary options," he said. "We need to expand young people's perspectives about career opportunities and vocational training. There are jobs that offer $20, $30 and $40 an hour that don't require four-year degrees -- plumbers, carpenters and certain health care specialties, for example."

Werksman, of Resource Partners, said businesses could do more as well. In big cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, he said, major employers develop extensive internship programs that tap local engineering and business schools as "breeding grounds" for future employees.

"That concept has not caught on in Las Vegas," Werksman said. "The schools need to focus on giving kids better hands-on experience, but employers also need to reach out to the community, build better relationships with schools and make internships more available to students."

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