Construction that Never Sleeps

Nevada Building Boom Stretches Workforce Thin

By Tony Illia

Southern Nevada's building boom has stretched its construction workforce paper-thin, causing contractors to compete for top talent, including project managers, engineers and superintendents. Demand for skilled labor has also resulted in everything from out-of-state recruiting and signing bonuses to flex hours and 401Ks.

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Construction was responsible for 129,560 jobs last year, making it the state's fastest-growing and second-largest employer behind the leisure and hospitality industry, reports the Nevada Dept. of Employment and Training and Rehabilitation.

"Nevada's job growth has been running three to four times the national average in the past several years," says Terry Johnson, DETR director.

"Businesses are adding jobs at a staggering rate."

The construction industry is expected to grow by about 10,000 jobs in 2007, including positions for heavy equipment operators, carpenters, electricians and other craftsmen, DETR reports.

Much of the construction demand is occurring on the Las Vegas Strip with roughly $28.27 billion worth of resort expansions planned through 2010, reports the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. That figure includes 36,725 more hotel rooms, 964 additional timeshare units and another 3.47 million sq ft of convention space, it adds.

No job, however, is bigger than MGM Mirage's Project CityCenter - a $7 billion, 18-million-sq-ft hotel, condo, entertainment complex being built on the Strip between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo resorts. It's the largest privately financed construction project in U.S. history, company officials claim. General contractor, Perini Building Co., Phoenix, will employ up to 7,000 people during the peak of activity, or about 1/3 of Southern Nevada's total union trade workforce, says Richard Rizzo, company chairman. >>

The company hires headhunters to find construction managers and superintendents nationwide, paying signing bonuses, housing assistance and moving expenses. CityCenter, which isn't scheduled to finish until November 2009, has ratcheted the competitiveness and pay level among local firms.

"There are craftsmen that are making $90,000 to $100,000 a year with overtime, and project managers earning up to $250,000 annually," says Robert Potter, president of the Associated General Contractors, Las Vegas chapter. "I won't announce recent hires in the paper anymore because it's advertising for my competitors to come and steal them."

Unions, meanwhile, have been scrambling to fill contractor demand. Both the carpenters and laborers, for example, allow migration without penalizing members or levying additional dues. The added numbers have pumped-up unions locals to record numbers.

"We increased our membership by about 1,100 people last year," says Tommy White, secretary-treasurer for the Laborers' Local 872, which represents over 4,400 members in Clark County. "And we're projecting to add up to 2,000 more members in 2007."

The Laborers even chartered a new local in response to the union's growth.

The new union local addresses off-Strip light-commercial and residential work. It has been adding roughly 30 members a month, White claims.

"Finding the appropriate labor has been our number one challenge," says Tony Dazzio, vice president of business development for Burke & Associates, a Las Vegas-based general contractor. "The equation of success is directly due to our people."






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