Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleGAMING:
Reports put numbers on reduction of workforce
As giants cut full-timers, MGM Mirage boosts corps of part-timers
Monday, May 11, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Many Las Vegas gaming companies have laid off workers or reduced hours to trim their operating budgets.
Typically, companies try to avoid layoffs by not replacing workers who leave on their own, requesting that employees voluntarily take time off without pay or go home early when business is slow.
Although companies have been reluctant to quantify such changes, in part because of the difficulty in pinpointing fluid staffing levels, recently issued annual reports shed some light on what has happened to the gaming workforce during this downturn.
Of the gaming giants, MGM Mirage experienced the largest decline in staffing, from 54,700 full-time workers at the end of 2007 to 46,000 at the end of 2008. By comparison, the company’s part-time workforce rose, from 12,700 in 2007 to 15,000 last year. Employees covered by collective bargaining agreements fell to 30,000 from 31,300 a year earlier. That will swell by at least 10,000 at year’s end, when most of the CityCenter resort complex opens.
Harrah’s Entertainment also experienced a large decline. The company’s worldwide workforce fell to 80,000 at the end of 2008 from 87,000 the year before. The number of union workers also fell, from 28,000 to 26,000.
Declines on the Strip have had a ripple effect on the local economy.
Station Casinos had 13,400 Nevada employees as of Jan. 31, 2008, versus 14,500 employees a year earlier. Competitor Boyd Gaming reported a lesser drop in its workforce, with 16,000 employees at year’s end versus 16,900 in 2007.
The Planet Hollywood hotel had 117 fewer employees, at 2,536, and the Riviera reported 111 fewer workers at the end of 2008, or 1,137.
Wynn Las Vegas and Las Vegas Sands, which generate most of their earnings in China and have recently opened resorts, are still growing. Sands has laid off workers in Las Vegas, but Wynn has appeared to avoid that by hiring workers at Encore who might otherwise have been shed at Wynn Las Vegas, next door.
Las Vegas Sands reported 28,500 employees in 2008 versus 28,000 a year ago.
Wynn Las Vegas reported 20,600 last year, including 7,200 in Macau — a figure that includes the December opening of Encore. A year earlier, that figure was 16,500, including 7,000 in Macau.
Many hourly casino employees in Las Vegas go to work concerned whether they will have a decent paycheck at the end of the week — or any at all.
Yet management is in a riskier spot these days given that employers have slashed hourly staffing levels to meet depressed demand.
With cheap hotel rates boosting visitation, or at least keeping resorts busy, the rank and file are still needed to serve customers. Meanwhile, companies continue to seek long-term expense reductions, the kind that can more safely be achieved by cutting managers who don’t deal directly with customers. After all, many hourly employees say they are working harder to keep up with business volume that has overwhelmed a now-smaller workforce.
MGM Mirage has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from its operating budget in recent months and expects many of those cuts, in departments such as payroll and information technology, to be permanent. The company eliminated more than 400 middle management jobs last year without hurting business, and is believed to have more upper management employees, including individual resort company presidents, compared with competitors such as Harrah’s.
Until their earnings improve, companies will be forced to make increasingly difficult decisions about labor costs — choices that could have big implications for the Las Vegas economy if more full-time career employees join the growing army of part-timers.
For now, reducing pay for the many may be more preferable than layoffs for the few — even among people whose jobs are not cut.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- At UNLV basketball games, they call him Tiny, and that big kid can dance
- Rise and fall of the Charity Queen: How Kathleen Vermillion gained fame
- Celebrity preview: JWoww, Sean Kingston, Ice-T and Coco, Nelly
- Sandoval’s $400,000 credit card payment reveals campaign finance flaw
- Henderson mayor ‘regrets’ police-inflicted pain suffered by diabetic after traffic stop
- Star Surveillance: Vince Neil turns 51, Criss Angel, Angel Porrino, ‘Stripped’
- Critics call foreclosure settlement ‘a slap in face’
- Judge sets hearing for teacher in DUI-related accident
- Creativity, strong support system make for thriving city
- An early-state problem; and teachers union doesn’t relent
Blogs
The Kats Report
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped' TV show: "I'll give it an 8'
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (1 Comment)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Kats Report
A sophisticated look at line-moving and dog-show handicapping from Wynn's Johnny Avello
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
The resorts could save dozens of jobs by moderating executive pay. Fairness is at the root of this problem!
Liz Benston writes: "With cheap hotel rates boosting visitation, or at least keeping resorts busy, the rank and file are still needed to serve customers."
I defy Liz to find ANY non-anecdotal statistical evidence of visitation being "boosted" for any reason, let alone because of "cheap hotel rates." None of the visitation statistics -- monthly, quarterly, annually or McCarran-specific -- will bear her out. A slowing rate of decline is not a boost in visitation. It is a decline.
Fire all employees that are not in the country legally. This will open thousands of jobs up for American Taxpayers to work. We should have no unemployed American before we have one illegal on the payroll. Its time the strip employers are held accountable for hiring illegals.
All of these Blog's seem to knock "Cheap Rooms".
If it were not for the "Cheap Rooms" we would not drive (300) miles to spend a week in Vegas.
These rates have increased our "Discressionary Spending" once I arrive.
So it is your call. "Cheap Rooms" or a luxurious cemetary.
Ace's
Ace's
Motel 6 will leave the light on!
There was no light on at Ace Motel 6
These articles bring ut the best in the human spirit. You know, screw undocumented persons (perhaps let them eat cake but not in my backyard), stay at motel 6, and the reporters are dummies. Certainly the premise of these articles are that since you are not on drugs perhaps you can get a high from our artificial boosterism. Yes, be positive, and spend all of you income!!
In addition to 'cutting managers who do not deal directly with customers' it seems Harrah's also considers Security as a discretionary cost. Not once during my five night stay (early May) was there any security check for guests entering either of the two guest tower's elevators, even during late night/ early morning hours. On previous stays, showing guest key card to an employee staged at the towers' entrance was hotel policy.
Back in the 80's and 90's when Japan Inc, was kicking American industries butt, American mangement implementated the heart of the Japanese mangement style. Employee involvement. By involving the employee in the decision and operations process we beat back the foreign tide. Fast forward to today. Management thinks employees are stupid so they hire plenty of ignorant deadbeat managers to tell them what to do. The company I worked for was a perfect example. Not only could you see the decline in performance but it really showed up in the profit sharing. We went from a solid 5% to a "we didn't make the profit goals but since you worked real hard and we feel sorry for you we'll give you 1% instead of the 0% the plan calls for". This was during the good years, not the recent recession. As the recession has shown, the Americans are getting their cans kicked again.
Recessions force corporations to make hard decisions. Sometimes the decisions involve downsizing jobs, and sometimes the companies downsize the workforce just for grins. The latter is the case here.
I work in a Casino on the strip and I can tell you that there is no illegal undocumented workers working in any casino. The background checks and verification process is probably the best in the country when it comes to screening employees.