Experts are confident LV labor needs will be met

Nearly 20,000 jobs will be created in Southern Nevada in the next 12 months with the opening of four resorts -- potentially draining the labor pool of workers sought by non-gaming companies.

But Nevada Development Authority leaders are confident the work force will stay deep enough to meet the needs of the non-gaming high-tech companies the agency is recruiting.

Somer Hollingsworth, president of the NDA, said the local population is still expanding with 5,000 newcomers a month and the newcomers are helping to meet the needs of the target industries the NDA is seeking.

In addition, many of the employees at the new resorts -- Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, The Venetian and Paris -- will come from existing properties owned by their respective companies. Some of the jobs that will come open will be at other hotels operated by Mirage Resorts Inc., Circus Circus Enterprises and Hilton Hotels Corp. Las Vegas Sands Inc. is the parent company to The Venetian and formerly operated the Sands hotel-casino.

Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV, concurs with Hollingsworth's assessment that the personnel -- and the brainpower -- will be here for companies looking to relocate or expand.

"It's important for us to communicate that there are technical people here," Schwer said. "But it's very hard for us to get good numbers on that.

"We know that there are about 5,000 people coming in on a net basis. Not all of them are looking for jobs, many of them are retirees," he said. "But not all of them are going into the service industry either. Some are spouses of resort employees that have technical training and will be available to new companies."

Schwer said it's also important for companies to know about UNLV as a potential source of employees.

Hollingsworth said the opening of the new resorts shouldn't adversely affect recruitment efforts in four target industries the NDA is focusing on: communications equipment, motor vehicle parts and accessories, electromedical apparatus and motion picture and videotape production.

Hollingsworth unveiled the recruitment strategy in a "state of the NDA" address at a recent meeting and explained the network of state employment recruiting and training opportunities available before the Southern Nevada chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

NAIOP and the NDA have formed an informal partnership since NAIOP members build offices and warehouses and the NDA recruits companies that eventually could occupy them.

Growth companies within the target industries are what the NDA will recruit. Hollingsworth said companies must have a minimum 35 percent sales increase and a minimum 35 percent employment increase over the last year to be recruited. Prospective companies also must have conducted direct marketing of their products over eight months.

In the communications equipment category, the NDA is seeking companies that develop home automation systems, intelligent transportation systems, home security, local area networks and smart weapons. In the automotive parts area, the NDA is seeking makers of automotive electronics, after-market products, truck and sport-utility-vehicle accessories and do-it-yourself diagnostics systems.

Medical lasers, laser eye surgery and cosmetic laser applications companies are being sought in the electromedical apparatus category. For motion picture and video production, the NDA is seeking makers of digital video disks, independent films, international videos and animated movies and television series. The NDA already has announced a partnership with the non-profit Entertainment Development Corp. as a resource for recruiting players in movie and video production.

The majority of categories on the NDA wish list involve high-tech operations, a response to studies that have shown Nevada lacking in computer jobs. A recent American Electronics Association study ranked Nevada 45th in the number of computer jobs per 1,000 private-sector workers -- a study Hollingsworth has said is flawed. The NDA president said many high-tech jobs in the gaming industry weren't counted in the study.

Hollingsworth also reiterated that Nevada faces stiff competition in attracting high-tech jobs from nearly every Western state. California, in the midst of an economic rebound that slowed the state in the early '90s, ranked in the top five in every category of the study, from growth indicators to salary levels.

The NDA, which Hollingsworth said has helped create more than 24,000 jobs in the past five years by recruiting 186 new companies to the state, has also undergone a leadership change on its board of directors.

George Smith, area executive of the Bank of America Nevada, took over this month as chairman of the board.

Smith will complete the last year of the term of John Goolsby, who retired as president of the Howard Hughes Corp., and then begin his own two-year stint as chairman.

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