Las Vegas Real Estate and Business News

LAS VEGAS LABOR MARKET: Job applicants in good position

Businesses say qualified candidates often lacking

By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Feb. 27, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

With the statewide unemployment rate at 3.8 percent and metropolitan Las Vegas even tighter at 3.5 percent, job seekers are in the driver's seat and employers sometimes have to take what they can get, local work force experts said.

They consider 4.5 percent to be virtually full employment. It's basically the "unemployable," people who normally wouldn't get hired that are left when the rate drops below that.

"It does two things for our client employers," said Bill Werksman, president of Las Vegas-based Resource Partners. "One, it makes them understand they have to search outside the local market for certain skill sets and technical people. And two, they have to consider candidates that they would traditionally have not considered in the past."

Werksman said he heavily recruits software engineers, software developers and other information technology professionals, including project managers who can do everything in the tech field.

A tight labor market makes qualified job candidates more marketable, Werksman said.

"They can evaluate their current position and say, 'I've had a suspicion I'm being underpaid.' They can test the free-agent market out there for career chances," Werksman said.

Job seekers can often command higher starting salaries and benefits.

"In a tight labor market, candidates have a better chance to call their own shots when it comes to salary and other perks," he said. "It goes back to the law of supply and demand."

Doug Geinzer, president of Recruiting Nevada, said it's the tightest labor market he's seen since starting his company here in 1993.

"I have a hard time believing it (3.5 percent unemployment)," he said. "But you've got a lot of job growth with Wynn ( Las Vegas) opening and now you've got South Coast and Red Rock (Resort). The World Market Center is supposed to add 20,000 jobs. I don't know if all of their jobs are open yet, maybe they're coming on. CDW is hiring in North Las Vegas. Household Bank, Ford Motor Credit Center, all of the call centers are starting to percolate with a lot of activity."

Clark County's employment grew by 7 percent in 2005 to slightly more than 900,000, according to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. About 12,000 of the new jobs were in the volatile construction sector. Other high-growth areas include professional and business services (up 9.3 percent), financial activities (9.5 percent) and education and health services (7.4 percent).

Jim Shabi, economist for the state employment agency, said Nevada will again rank among the nation's leaders with a projected 5 percent job growth this year, down from 5.8 percent in 2005.

He cited projects such as MGM Mirage's CityCenter, the recent opening of South Coast and the soon-to-open Red Rock Resort as a few of the developments that will perpetuate job growth in Southern Nevada.

"Investment in the Las Vegas market has shown few signs of slowing," Shabi said.

Rural Nevada, which experienced substantial job loss in the 1990s with a downturn in the mining industry and related heavy equipment sales, is rebounding, Geinzer said.

Sierra Pacific Resources announced plans to build a new power plant in Ely, employing thousands of construction workers. LS Power Associates from East Brunswick, N.J., will build a competitive plant in the same area and will need 600 construction workers.

There's only one problem, Geinzer noted.

The entire work force of White Pine County is 4,063 and the total number of unemployed workers is 182. The closest city is Elko with a work force of 24,000 and 896 unemployed.

As competition for the best and brightest candidates intensifies, employers are finding it harder to find the "right" person for the job, Werksman said. Employers must make concessions in applicant's qualifications and skill level, Werksman added.

In an abundant labor market, employers have the luxury of selecting someone who meets all of their criteria, "a 10 out of 10," Werksman said.

"In a tight market, they are forced to take an eight out of 10 and hope the ramp-up time it takes a new hire to become productive can be minimized."

Chris Thompson, managing principal of Wood Rogers engineering firm in Las Vegas, said he's always looking for people with a background in land development engineering, including draftsmen and mapping surveyors.

"It's almost nonexistent," he said of the talent pool. "We've found that to be true in all three of our markets, here and Reno and our Sacramento, ( Calif.), headquarters. I passed on a lot of candidates. We're somewhat picky. They've got to have the qualifications."

Thompson said his firm hasn't been "throwing a ton of money at people," with beginning surveyors starting under $20,000. What he offers is a corporate culture that's geared more toward entrepreneurial spirit than the pyramid of upper management.

"They come from companies where they weren't growing professionally," he said.

The tight labor market will continue for the near term as long as the economy remains strong, Werksman said.

"We're definitely going to see more of the same across the board, a general tightening of the labor market," he said.

"We do see demographic changes in the work force as baby boomers continue to edge toward retirement. With older workers moving on, that gives younger candidates more opportunity than they might have had in the past."

He said Las Vegas continues to have a shortage of qualified, reliable and skilled workers, particularly in construction, technology and service industries.

"Candidates that we call 'passive' job seekers, those that are currently looking but would welcome the opportunity to better their situation, are coming to the forefront on many of our searches. They will passively explore the opportunities out there and see if they can strike a better deal and secure a better future for themselves both short and long term," Werksman said. "Smart job seekers, even those passive ones, will keep their résumés up to date. Nothing will derail a job search like having to go back and update your résumés. Keeping it up to date and fresh allows job seekers the ability to move on an opportunity the moment it presents itself."

The year's first two months have turned out to be active for turnover in top management positions for some of North America's larger public companies, said Richard Jacovitz, senior vice president of New York-based Liberum Research.

More than 2,300 "C-level" managers (chief executive officers and department heads) left their firms in January, the highest number since Liberum Research started keeping management turnover statistics in December 2004. February is on pace to trump January, Jacovitz said.

Among 32 major companies that underwent chief executive officer changes in January were Dow Jones Co., Nike, FedEx Corp., 3Com Corp. and Gymboree Corp.

If you are planning to relocate in the Las Vegas area contact us for a prompt response to any questions you have about the Las Vegas real estate market. We invite you to visit our website to view updated daily listings of Las Vegas homes at Las Vegas Real Estate MLS Search. .