[Steve Inskeep:] If you're still waiting for the government to fix the economy, you can go to Las Vegas looking for a new job while you're waiting. A major new development in Vegas is hiring in a big way. The MGM Mirage is looking to fill 12,000 jobs in its huge CityCenter project. As NPR's Ted Robbins reports, the company expects to be flooded with applications.
[Ted Robbins:] CityCenter is an enormous complex of resorts, condominiums, and retail stores going up on the Las Vegas strip. At roughly $8 billion, it's said to be the most expensive private construction project in U.S. history. MGM Mirage Vice President Alan Feldman says when it opens in December, CityCenter will need a lot of workers.
[M:] Front desk personnel and bell staff and restaurant servers, housekeepers, [unintelligible] house staff, engineering and maintenance personnel, accounting and administrative staff.
[Ted Robbins:] That's even after the project was scaled back. One of the condo components was cancelled, and one of the resorts was postponed. Feldman says having any jobs to offer in a recession makes CityCenter different than Las Vegas resort openings he's seen over the last two decades.
[M:] There's something very profound this time about putting out a call for 12,000 people in the midst of headlines that seem to run every day of, you know, that number and more are being laid off in other places.
[Ted Robbins:] Feldman expects about 100,000 applicants in all. People are being asked to apply online first. Interviews will begin next month starting with workers who were laid off from other MGM Mirage resorts in Vegas over the last year. Ted Robbins, NPR News.