The Las Vegas job market continue to be challenging for those out of work.  The State of Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) released reports on December 2008 unemployment levels on Monday this week.  Nevada’s unemployment level jumped to 9.1% unemployment.  This is the highest it has been in over 25 years.

To shed more light on the matter…. if you take into consideration the 5,200 jobs that Wynn Encore added in December, the situation looks even more bleak.  If you remove that job creation, Nevada would be over 10%.  So…… it is pretty bad folks.

However, there is some hope on the horizon.  It appears President Obama’s stimulus package will improve the employment outlook in Nevada.  Nearly $1 trillion will be pushed out to the states to stimulate the economy.  A large portion of that is dedicated to job creation.  The areas where you will see growth will be in Public Works project such as roadways, bridges, telecommunication infrastructure, health care and education. 

Nevada supposedly has some 300+ ’shovel ready’ projects that will be presented for funding.  These projects will create many new jobs in Nevada.  The money will flow from the feds to the states and then down to the counties and agencies performing the work.  I anticipate the majority of the initial work will be outsourced so there will be a substantial amount of job creation in the private sectors as well as the public.�

The largest private job creation in the history of the United States is happening right here in Las Vegas. CityCenter, owned by MGM Mirage, will be opening in December 2009 with over 12,000 new Las Vegas jobs.

CityCenter will be making its first live appearance at the Opportunity Boulevard Career Fair today (January 8th) at Green Valley Ranch Resort Spa and Casino. You can get VIP access and register for the event at www.OpportunityBoulevard.com.

Be sure to be dressed to impress and have plenty of resumes!  The event will go from 12:30 (12 if you pre-register) to 4:00 p.m.

Wow, what a great privilege it is to be a contributing writer for the Living in Las Vegas Podcast & Blog.  I have admired Scott’s work on this website for a few years now and am humbled by the fact that he would ask me to be a contributing writer. 

Scott has asked me to write about jobs in Las Vegas.  Employment in Las Vegas is an area that is near and dear to my heart.  I have been intimately involved in the jobs market in Las Vegas for over 15 years, dating back to when I was a jobseeker in 1993.  As with most, I moved to Las Vegas, the land of opportunity, for what I thought would be a temporary lay-over to make some money until I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Fifteen years later (I guess I have not grown up), you cannot drag me out of Las Vegas.  Las Vegas is now my home and I cannot imagine living anywhere else.  Las Vegas has been, and continues to be, very good to me.  And for the past 15 years, I have invested all of my time and energy, sharing the knowledge I have to assist other job seekers in realizing their dreams by moving to, and Living in Las Vegas.

I look forward to sharing the insider knowledge I have about the Las Vegas job market to help you.  If you have a particular topic you would like me to discuss, please feel free to email me at doug[at]livinginlv.com. 

Until my next post….Cheers and Happy Job Hunting.

I just read that according to the folks at MGM Mirage, the company expects more the 100,000 applicants for the 12,000 positions that will be available to those of us that call (or want to call) Las Vegas our home.  And if you are already an MGM Mirage employee, you have a significant inside track on two fronts:

1. About half of CityCenter employees will come from other MGM Mirage properties
2. MGM Mirage employees will have about a three month head start over the general public in filling those CityCenter jobs

But what I find really interesting is that while MGM Mirage plans to hire 12,000 people (which is GREAT news), about 6,000 will be placed in other MGM Mirage properties.  The company plans to leverage the CityCenter opening to attract top-shelf applicants to MGM Mirage.

Want to be one of the 12,000?  Here’s the online application link: www.citycentercareers.com  If you’re not an MGM Mirage employee, you have to wait until January 5th, 2009 before you can get into the mix.

59: Tips on Finding a Job in Las Vegas: From a Senior Recruiter’s Perspective

Since moving to Las Vegas in August of 2005, we’ve seen unemployment as low as 3.8%.  But more recently, we’re looking at an unemployment rate of 6.7% here in the Las Vegas Valley.  From where we sit, that’s too damn high (and above the national average).  So, for today’s Living in Las Vegas Podcast, we offer some very specific tips on finding a job in Las Vegas (and beyond).  Show notes:

• Weather/Pool Report: Hot and Dry, like my love and humor
• JetBlue?  More like JetBlows.
• Discovering Las Vegas with my Magellan 1412
• Listener Meet Up on August 15 at 5PM at Trader Vic’s.  More Info.  Drink Recommendation.
• Check out the 2008 New Media Expo in Las Vegas (August 14-16)!
• Construction on 215
• Listener Audio: Show thoughts, baking cakes, and jewelry shows
• Listener Email: Moving to Vegas, taking back her title, killing deer, garage doors, show suggestions
• More LiLV Friends added!
• Tip’s on Finding a Job in Las Vegas
• Resumes
• Networking
• Job Boards (National and Local)
• Interview (telephone, preparation for onsite, interview tips, follow up)

57: All About Water (Hot and Frozen): Water Heaters & Wranglers

Is there a shortage of water in Las Vegas? Not from where we sit! In today’s Living In Las Vegas Podcast we dive into Las Vegas water quality and water heaters then root for our favorite frozen water Vegans, the Las Vegas Wranglers. Show notes:

• Sponsor Podcasts Intersections by Interwoven, Interwoven’s GearUp Podcast, Acutrack Podcast, Polycom On Demand
• Weather/Pool Report: Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!
• New Website update
• New Friend: David and Alicia
• Listener Voicemail: Partying, Las Vegas Real Estate
• Listener Emails: Furniture, Free/discount tickets, Gas, Casino Employment
• Water Heater Drama
• Las Vegas Wranglers Hockey

12: Building a Pool in Las Vegas–Oh My GOD!!!

Six months in the making, we are finally ready, after a great deal of therapy, to talk about building our pool. Show notes:

• Our First Listener Voice Mail (and a free CD goes to…)
• Living in Las Vegas Podcast feature on the Yahoo Podcast page
• It’s a dry heat, so let’s build a pool
• Melissa’s Job Hunt: Training is complete, and now…
• This week’s Hot or Horrible
• (Thanks to Savannah for the numeric intro!)

11: Scott visits the Blue Man Group open casting call and we introduce our newest segment; Melissa’s Job Hunt!

While watching the news recently, we saw that the Blue Man Group was holding an open casting call for, well, Blue Men. So Scott decided to check it out. Then, we introduce the new Melissa’s Job Hunt segment. Show notes:

• Thanks to Hunter Hillegas of ratevegas.com for the kind words
• Blue Man requirements (of which Scott meets 83%)
• Some BMG inside info
• The “Audition”
• Melissa’s Job Hunt: The Background
• This week’s Hot or Horrible (3 of ‘em)

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