MGM Resorts looking to fill more than 3K positions

Amid an ongoing labor shortage in the Las Vegas Valley, MGM Resorts International is looking to hire for more than 3,000 positions.

The company kicked off a four-day hiring event Monday at the One-Stop Career Center at 6330 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite 190. Job seekers can stop by the center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Thursday to apply for jobs and meet with MGM representatives.

Brandon Perry, MGM director of HR initiatives, said Monday that MGM is especially looking for security officers, retail associates, and food and beverage workers for positions such as baristas, cooks and servers. But, he added, “there are needs across the board.”

MGM Resorts hiring managers will be at the center to speak to job seekers about open positions and possibly give job offers on the spot. No appointment is necessary.

‘Everybody’s in the same situation’

MGM Resorts is far from alone in its hiring struggles. Businesses all over the valley have dealt with worker shortages as the city recovers from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. That’s made it even harder to obtain and keep employees, Perry said.

“Everybody’s in the same situation,” he said. “People are hesitant to come back and be around large groups of people. But we’re definitely seeing an increase in applications over the last couple of months. The most challenging part is that all the employers in Las Vegas are in the same situation. Who’s getting to those candidates first, right?”

Joe Sharpe, project director for One Stop Career Center, said employers have adjusted to the worker shortage by being more proactive in their hiring search by offering more perks and doing more in-person recruiting, such as at Monday’s event.

“They’re highlighting their benefits, they’re highlighting what makes a job attractive because they’re in competition with a lot of other employers,” Sharpe said. “If you’re just applying for jobs online, you know, maybe you don’t have the right resume or maybe you’re not making it through the application correctly. And sometimes that in-person conversation is incredibly valuable for job seekers and employers.”

By noon Monday, Perry said MGM had already helped prospective employees fill out about 50 applications, and a steady stream of job seekers was seen coming through the center’s doors.

Among them was 26-year-old Taylor Fitch, who moved to Las Vegas a few weeks ago from Chicago. A graduate of Northern Illinois University, he moved to Nevada to be closer to his family, which has lived in the valley for a decade.

“I feel like it’s a broader network of things out here,” Fitch said. “Being on the West Coast, closer to California and in a big city, I think this is a great place for me.”

Fitch has experience in music and video production. He said he’d love to find a job in either field but noted he’s pretty open to anything. “Just somewhere where I can interact with a lot of different people,” he said.

MGM’s hiring push comes as Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which has provided an extra $300 weekly to recipients, is expiring. The unemployment boost is set to run out Sept. 4 in Nevada.

‘Still a lot of open positions’

An estimated 9.6 percent of the Las Vegas area’s workforce was unemployed in June, the highest percentage in the nation among large metro areas, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in late July.

Sharpe said he’s seen a “slow increase” of job applicants since Las Vegas began loosening pandemic restrictions in the spring, but there’s “still a lot of open positions.”

That has led workers to be more selective about which jobs they take, Sharpe said. “The pandemic has changed people’s perspectives on jobs quite a bit.”

Sharpe said job seekers more often come in looking for work-from-home jobs and jobs that provide child care, for example.

“People are actively looking; they’re looking for the right spot and the right role,” he said Monday. “And there are a lot more factors than just the type of job and the wage when they’re looking for that right thing.”

Contact Dylan Svoboda at dsvoboda@reviewjournal.com. Follow @dylanksvoboda on Twitter.