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Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Sun archives
Overheard at a gaming-industry job fair, one woman asking another:
“What kind of position are you looking for?”
“Pretty much anything.”
Her sentiment reflected the anxiety born of 14 percent unemployment and several years of a septic economy.
On Tuesday, a day when the lingering high spirits of a successful Consumer Electronics Show were dispelled somewhat by news that gaming revenue declined 6 percent in November, there was a casino job fair at the College of Southern Nevada.
WestStar, the gaming-industry credit union (aided by Recruiting Nevada, a corporate sibling of the Sun), brought together 10 major gaming employers — including MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and the Venetian — so that the unemployed, the underemployed or people who just want a change could get information, drop off a resume or otherwise present themselves for inspection. Supposedly, the companies on hand had 3,400 jobs to fill.
I tried to talk to one guy, but he brushed me off: “No, no, no, I’m too tied up looking for a job,” he said — he’d take pretty much anything, I’d guess — before hustling away into the thickening crowd. His fellow job-seekers were young and old, of several races and every apparent social strata, pretty evenly divided between men and women, from what I could see.
“Most people have a pretty good attitude,” said Mona Joseph, WestStar assistant vice president of business development, standing amid the crowd flow. “And they’re dressed pretty well!” She gestured toward a man in line at the Station Casinos booth. “I’d hire him, just because he looks good.”
He did look good, too. Sharp brown suit, dapper hat, pristine grooming. “Larry Owen,” he said. Fifteen years in sales, out of work since February.
If his outfit was upbeat, his expectations weren’t, tempered by tough experience and a pragmatic assessment of his chances of actually landing a job. Like many other well-dressed people I noticed, there was a disconnect between the optimism of his wardrobe and the wariness on his features, the mounting despair unconsciously encoded right into his snappy look.
What’s your level of optimism, Larry?
“Right now, it’s very low,” he said. “I’ve put in a thousand resumes online. I’ve gone to things like this, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people out of work.”
Looked to be the same this time. The fair had opened at 11 — although Joseph said a handful of people were waiting at 8 a.m. — and by 12:30, WestStar President and CEO Rick Schmidt estimated that a thousand people had cycled through. (“That’s three jobs for every person,” one chipper job-fair worker was overheard to say.)
“I’m 54,” Owen said. “I feel that’s a deficit for me in terms of finding availabilities.” Still, here he was, gamely working the tables and hoping for the best, or, at least, pretty much anything. “It’s coming up on a year,” he said. “I need to get back to work.”
Another well-dressed job-seeker, a thin, angular, intense former casino manager we’ll call “Claire” because she doesn’t want her opinions to hamper her employability, was cynical about the claim of 3,400 jobs available.
“I spend a couple of hours a day, every day, going through the websites and applying for every single job. At one casino, I applied for four positions I was more than qualified for. Not a single call.”
Indeed, it’s hard not to wonder how, in a town as hard-hit as this, with so many jobless and the ease of online application, so many jobs could remain unfilled. Were some of the companies merely there to appear supportive, she wondered? But she didn’t blame WestStar for whatever disparity might exist, she added, just the cutthroat nature of the industry.
Yet, Claire keeps at it. “I get up, I put on a suit, I come down here,” she said. She felt she got decent feedback at the Boyd booth, but said she was blown off by Venetian, which, she said, merely referred her to its website.
“The companies are making it impossible to earn a living,” she said, her voice low and firm with anger. “I know people with 25 years of experience who’ve seen their status reduced. They’re now part time, on-call. I’m finding it very disheartening.”
Then she was off, saying something about the Caesars table. I wished her luck.
“The feedback has been positive,” Schmidt told me later. “People are happy to get in front of people who are hiring.”
you have to know someone in this town for a job
Las Vegas was been hit as hard as any city in the country by the Great Recession. Like Detroit, Vegas depended on one industry to sustain their economic viability. Also like Detroit, bad decisions by both labor and management have made the situation one of the worst in the country.
Diversity of the economy and a stable housing marker has spared Texas the severity of the problems that Nevada is suffering. Gaming is no longer solely a Nevada industry. The expansion of legalized gambling within the states and over seas has contributed to the economic downfall.
I believe that Las Vegas has more down sizing in their future. Neither the housing market nor the job market has bottomed out yet. I have spent more time in Nevada than any state except Texas over the past 30 years and I empathize with the people who are trying to survive with almost 15% unemployment.
I believe the city must convince businesses and industry other than gaming and construction to relocate to southern Nevada. Las Vegas has an abundance of affordable housing, low taxes, and an available labor pool. Business diversity is the only viable solution. Tourism alone is not going to save Las Vegas.
WOW...Here's a whole bunch of people pulling together doing what they can to help people find a job and you (Scott Dickensheets)find a way to look for the slimy underbelly.
***
What folks don't know is that every company there VOLUNTEERED everything to be there. Should education be provided on how someone should "work" a job fair? Yes, I'll agree to that...but to highlight one person's inability to work the fair to her advantage and diss a company who sincerely has jobs to offer was so below the belt.
***
Shame on you Scott, I think you missed the spirit of the event!
The event was a success if you focus on what Weststar was looking to do. What I believe the job seekers were experiencing is the inability to make a connection. For an industry that relies on employees giving guest service and making a connection with a guest, that in turn, will make a positive impression and ultimately result in repeat business.....technology is being relied on! To have each of the 10 gaming companies direct job fair participants to their websites is insulting. We need to make human connections.....in this industry! I appreciate what the thought process was....kudos to Weststar! Casinos need to wake up and meet the job seekers face to face. This job fair was clearly not the forum for this to happen. Good luck to those who tried to make a good impression and were hopeful of being recognized as head and shoulders above......
Scott, I have a question for you. You're a pretty thorough investigator, so maybe you can find the reason.
Why are companies listing jobs that don't exist?
Even NV Job Connect has (for example) all of the taxi companies advertising for drivers and they don't NEED drivers.
What's going on? Is there some under-the-table payback scheme or a tax break in there.
I'm asking this question for a lot of people, I suspect.
I have never seen this issue addressed and considering the gravity of the unemployment situation, it's important, I think.
Looking for a job costs money and as you reported...wearies the soul for the long-term unemployed.
Maybe you could expose the story behind this fiasco in a future column.
Pokerface17...what you said makes no sense.
If there is a slimy underbelly, it should be exposed.
You sound like a company hack.
See what I mean by some kind of a fiasco going on, Scott?
IF anyone is remotely familiar with Scott Dickensheets, they know him to be a gloom & doom style writer, someone who can find the bucket of poo in the flower garden kind of guy. This article is very typical Dickensheets. He misses the boat on the fact that WestStar and Recruiting Nevada endeavored to do something nice for the community, to eliminate part of that 14% unemployment and instead chose to focus on the Venetian directing people to their website. Ok. He didn't bother to find out WHY they did this so it makes them appear to be less than sincere in their job offerings. I hope that's incorrect. Investigative reporting involves asking silly little questions like "Why are you directing people to your website at a job fair?" and not just tattling on them like an errant 4 year old. So the article disappoints and Monkey-Me, seems like you are a personal friend of Dickensheets tossing around comments at PokerFace17 like that... I'm just sayin'.
Hey! Where is this Bonzer Wolf come from. Scott?
That post was so accurate, it was scary.
But we have the title for Dumbest City and the Drunkest City title is our 2011 New Years Resolution goal.
So I'm sorry. Wolf...you must leave Las Vegas immediately.
So, Scott...we getting stupid drunk again tonight?
@ Monkey Me
My goal in commenting was to let the writer know he missed the mojo behind the job fair. Just today in the Sun...Station Casinos posted that they have 1,000 jobs. Scott implied disbelief that over 3,000 jobs were available at the 1/11/11 job fair.
He focused on the negative and an ill-tempered (albeit frustrated) job seeker. He did not focus the real goal of the fair... companies looking to bring awareness to what's available to the people seeking employment.
I'm just pointing out that Scott went all "Jerry Springer" about the job fair highlighting the equivalent of your second cousin, twice removed with really bad bodily odor.
Pokerface...understood.
But what's the story with advertising jobs that don't exist?
Pokerface, I (personally) know for a FACT that some of them are fake postings.
Where is the gain?
What is the upside for the deception?
The Las Vegas 2011 situation is headed for terrifying, so any attempt to be pragmatic and swish away all of the illusion and delusion cushions is commonly regarded as doom & gloom.
"The feedback has been positive," Schmidt told me later. "People are happy to get in front of people who are hiring."
That was Scott's closing sentence, Pokerface.
THAT's doom & gloom?
I actually found it to be a disturbingly naive "everyone lived happily ever after" type ending to the Fairy Tale of the Job Fair.
Scott, for the record...did you find ANYONE, who actually got hired...
...you know "faired" well for their efforts?