McCarran ramping up hiring to help keep pace with growth

By Liz Benston (contact)

Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

With the rapid growth of passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport and $2.4 billion in major construction projects planned over the next six years, airport officials are launching their largest job-recruiting effort in more than seven years.

The airport recently received budget approval for 128 new jobs and expects to hire another 100 people over the next fiscal year to replace workers lost through attrition. The new jobs start July 1.

McCarran also has launched its first online recruiting tool, www.mccarran.com/careers, to help fill those jobs. The Web site is likely to become a permanent feature as the airport tries to move more of its paper documents online, county Aviation Director Randy Walker said.

The biggest portion of new jobs, about 40 workers, will be custodial staff needed to clean public areas, he said. Many remaining jobs are skilled maintenance positions such as electricians, mechanics and engineers.

The Internet search will help the airport cast a wider net to find trained technicians who are few and far between in Clark County, Walker said.

The recruitment effort is intended to help the airport staff handle existing passenger traffic rather than projected traffic growth.

McCarran's passenger count grew 14 percent to about 41.5 million last year and has grown another 7 percent through May. The airport is on track to witness a 21 percent growth rate over two years. McCarran is projected to reach a maximum capacity of 53 million passengers by 2011, when more than 16 previously outlined construction projects are expected to be complete.

"You need more workers just to clean up after people using the same square footage," Walker said. "We're behind the curve."

McCarran froze hiring after Sept. 11 but then loosened up somewhat when passenger traffic grew again.

"In 2004 we exceeded quite a bit our pre-9/11 numbers," Walker said. "It became clear to us that we needed to add additional staff commensurate with growth."

When the staffing proposal was first presented to the airlines "they didn't blink an eye," he said. "One of the airlines asked us if that was enough."

Airlines, which fund McCarran through gate fees, serve on a committee that reviews the airport's budget each year.

The last major hiring effort was in 1998 when McCarran added about 100 people to staff the opening of the D gates.

The McCarran job Web site, crafted by a company that works with local and state governments, will allow the airport to significantly cut down on processing time, Walker said.

The system alerts applicants immediately whether they meet minimum job requirements and can keep track of applicants who don't get jobs, automatically alerting them to future positions that open up in their area of interest.

The Web format also allows the airport to pitch potential job applicants on some of the merits of Las Vegas -- something that isn't as easy to do given the limited space of classifieds and other traditional forms of advertising, Walker said.