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Topping Off
A benchmark was reached yesterday as the MGM Mirage eight-point-four billion dollar CityCenter complex finished structural work on the first of the six high-rise towers being built at the resort and residential development on the Strip. When complete the 57-story Viara Condo Hotel will feature nearly 15-hundred units with one, two and three bedrooms. It will be one of three non-gaming hotels being built at CityCenter. Work continues on the 76 acre site at Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. One of the projects under construction is a new Cirque du Soleil theater that will host a production about the life and music of Elvis Presley. Another will be an elevated people mover. Also in the works is a 60-million-dollar extension of Harmon from the Strip to the I-15 overpass. This coming January, MGM Mirage will begin hiring about 12-thousand employees for City Center, with a planned opening date set for November 2009.

Jobs at Stake if Slump Persists
Largely due to economic turmoil, with house values plummeting and gas prices soaring, publicly owned gambling companies lost 2.5 percent of their value in April.
Investors observing the Applied Analysis Gaming Index watched eight out of ten gambling concerns slip and slide down for the fifth time in the last six months.
Negative index views reflect a decline in visitation, hotel room rates and the amount of money gamblers lose to casinos. This affects short-term prospects of Las Vegas. MGM Mirage and Station Casinos both have cut their work forces in response to the slowdown.

According to Applied Analysis, the continuing slump could mean more job cuts by casino companies.

Keeping Up With Anticipated Demands
Today the Culinary Training Academy unveiled its new state-of-the-art MGM MIRAGE Culinary Training Academy Events Center which will be used to train individuals for jobs in the hospitality industry. The facility will help provide the latest experienced-based instruction to prepare workers for the more than 100,000 jobs needed by the industry over the next five years. To assist the CTA in its mission, MGM MIRAGE made a multi-year commitment totaling $500,000 for the Events Center.
Many large-scale developments are scheduled to open over the next several years and according to the President & Chief Operating Officer of the Luxor Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas will face a growing need for thousands of qualified, skilled workers in the hospitality industry and the CTA will help the hospitality industry by developing and training future culinary experts.
It is estimated that by the year 2010, over 57,700 new jobs will be created in the Leisure and Hospitality industry.

Numbers Up
According to a Friday Nevada Department of Training and Rehabilitation report, Nevada showed the highest rate of unemployment and the lowest rate of job growth in almost six years in March.
The March rate of 5.8 percent unemployment is up from 5.7 percent in February and is 4.4 percent more than the same month a year ago and higher than the national unemployment rate which was 5.1 percent in March.
Total establishment-based industrial employment in the state, is best described as flat, rose modestly over the month but remains 0.3 percent below the March 2007 level at nearly 1.29 million.

The Nevada mining regions, Elko, Esmeralda, Humboldt, Lander and White Pine counties all posted unemployment rates below 5 percent in March.

CSN Leadership Search
A special committee narrowed its search to three candidates for the position of the next president of the College of Southern Nevada. In the final running are: Berton Glandon from Littleton, Colorado, Mike Richards, the interim president of CSN and Laurence Spraggs from New York. The regent committee will select a finalist for recommendation to the full Board of regents on May 1st.

Dealers vs Wynn Appealed
Yesterday a Las Vegas labor attorney told the Nevada high court justices that Wynn Las Vegas violated employment agreements with its dealers when it illegally changed its tip-pooling policy in 2006 forcing dealers to share tips with supervisors.
The Supreme Court justices also heard arguments from attorneys for the Strip hotel-casino and two dealers who sued the resort after it changed its tip-pooling policy. The seven justices asked questions of both attorneys for 40-minutes. There was no indication which side the Court favored or when it might issue a decision.