Venetian employment level may not recover

David Strow

Monday, Oct. 29, 2001 | 10:52 a.m.

Though employees' hours have been rising at the Venetian as business recovers, they are unlikely to ever return to the levels seen before Sept. 11, executives with the hotel-casino's parent company said Friday.

Before Sept. 11, the Venetian averaged 3,925 "full-time equivalent employees" (FTEs) -- a measure of hours worked each week by employees, rather than actual employment numbers. When business dropped after Sept. 11, the Venetian cut FTEs by 27 percent.

Over the past few weeks FTEs averaged 3,336 -- up from September, but still down 15 percent from pre-Sept. 11 levels. Brad Stone, executive vice president of Las Vegas Sands Inc., told analysts Friday it is unlikely the Venetian will return to its pre-Sept. 11 employment levels any time soon.

"We are bringing some of those FTEs back as volume comes on board, but this gives us an opportunity to re-think some of our businesses," said Stone. "We are being very careful, as we bring individuals back, that those individual positions are consistent with our business model. It's an opportunity to re-examine what we've been doing."

Most of the permanent reductions will be aimed at "back-of-the-house" workers, and not employees that deal directly with the Venetian's customers, Stone said.

"(Customer service employees) are what's going to get people in here playing table games and slots," Stone said.

Another cost-cutting measure taken since Sept. 11 included significant cuts in casino marketing.

"We're in the process of being more selective in (providing incentives) for our premium players," Stone said.

The Venetian reported operating expenses of $86.35 million during the quarter ending Sept. 30, down 7 percent from the year-ago period. But the slowdown after Sept. 11 took more of a toll than cost cutting could make up for; the Venetian's cash flow was $28.3 million during the quarter, down 21 percent.

Much of the downturn has been coming in high-end play, particularly from Asia. The amount wagered in the property's slot machines was down 6 percent, but table game action fell 27 percent.

"In general, we see business rebounding, but we still have some challenges at the upper end of the table market and slot market," Stone said. "There are more quarter slot machine handles being pulled than $5 slot machine handles being pulled."

But Bill Weidner, president of Las Vegas Sands, sounded cautiously optimistic that business could be on the way back.

"We have people in China now, and they're reporting back to us while there's caution in the near-term, the further we get away from Sept. 11, the higher the probability those people will begin traveling again," Weidner said.