[outtavegas]

I really hope you are relocating with your company otherwise moving could be a huge mistake, construction out here is DEAD, like 15 projects just shut there doors either to bankrupt or no funds, here I know there are at least 6000 guys on the work list,

Hope that helps, good luck

[VegasResident]

If you are a carpenter looking to come to Vegas, please read this recent article in our paper. It basically says please do not come to Vegas looking for work.

Carpenters' jobs hit hard - Las Vegas Sun

here is the articel for those with link issues:

Carpenters’ jobs hit hard
With construction activity slow, the trade’s local union yanks its welcome mat

By Alexandra Berzon
Sat, Aug 23, 2008

Dear union leaders,

Please stop sending your workers to Las Vegas. We can’t take any more.

That was the gist of a letter Marc Furman, president of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, recently sent to Carpenters union locals across the country.

Until very recently, union work on commercial and public works projects in Las Vegas continued to boom even as residential construction faded. Out-of-towners steadily trekked to town, lured by the high times of Strip construction.

But suddenly the amount of work shrank to a point where it no longer can support newcomers, Furman told the union officials.

“There’s no point in encouraging more people to come in here,” Furman said in an interview this week.

Even finding enough work for the more than 15,000 union carpenters who are in Las Vegas, including more than a thousand recently arrived from out of town, will be tough. Inevitably, many will leave.

Outside the union hall Friday, Furman surveyed the parking lot, motioned to the dozen or so cars with out-of-state plates, and said in a resigned voice: “It’s good if they get out of here.”

That’s what David Schoenherr will probably do. He left his wife and kids behind in Detroit when work there dried up three years ago and headed to Las Vegas on the advice of friends.

The $9.2 billion MGM Mirage CityCenter site was revving up, and word was out that high-wage jobs were abundant, with plenty of overtime.

Nine months ago Schoenherr started work at Boyd Gaming’s $4.8 billion Echelon project, which he thought would employ him for at least another year.

“I thought I was set,” Schoenherr said.

The schedule worked out nicely for contractors and workers: Just as each trade job on CityCenter wound down, workers would move to Echelon to help construct that megaproject.

That’s how it appeared, anyway.

But when Boyd Gaming announced three weeks ago it was pausing work at Echelon at least until spring, the outlook for union carpenters and members of other building trades unions changed suddenly. Five hundred carpenters at Echelon were laid off. Before the change in plans, 2,000 were to have been added at the site.

“They just pulled the rug out from under us,” Schoenherr said.

It wasn’t long after that Furman sent his plea to unions across the country to halt traffic to Las Vegas. He also decided to close enrollment in the union’s apprenticeship program, capping it at 1,800.

The news has gotten only worse since then. Last week, for example, the airport announced it is delaying $348 million in construction.

At the union hall Friday morning, Schoenherr and John Bawman of Montana picked up applications for an oil refinery job in Canada. That promises up to seven years of steady work. All the men have to do is get their necessary documents in order.

“It’s going to get worse here before it gets better,” said Steve Holloway, vice president of the Las Vegas Associated General Contractors. Holloway’s trade organization predicts the nonunion residential construction sector will rebound before higher-paying commercial work.

The list of carpenters and drywall workers looking for work in Las Vegas has swelled to unsustainable levels, Furman said — from 1,500 just a few weeks ago to 2,200 now. Carpenters who once could find work immediately or within a few weeks now face months without jobs. The state announced this week that 7.4 percent of construction workers were unemployed in July, with jobs dropping from 103,800 last year to 94,600.

Carpenters often spend idle time sneaking onto job sites up and down the Strip as well as downtown and at highway projects to inquire about work. Carpenters are one of the few tradesmen allowed to solicit their own work rather than wait at union halls for their numbers to be called.

Although job sites are officially closed to people not working on them, if you are able to don a hard hat and sneak in, you can approach contractors to ask directly whether they’ll hire you. But even that approach isn’t working very well right now.

“Before, they would tell us to come back in two weeks, but now they say it’s full,” carpenter Jaime Vergara said, scanning lists of active job sites posted on walls inside the union hall. He’ll try to get on some of those sites later in the day.

“They don’t give you any hope.”

Even so, union and contractor officials insist the change is far from dire.

“It was so superheated it was almost surreal,” said Dan McQuade, president of Tishman Construction Corp. of Nevada, a contractor supervising construction at both CityCenter and Echelon. “We forget that this is more normal. People aren’t getting paid big premiums and guys aren’t coming from across the country. It’s clear it’s cooling down, but so are the other big markets we’re in. There’s still an awful lot of construction. Long-term it’s still a great market.”

Furman agreed. “Normal” is when workers make some good money for a while, then spend time out of work. For a while, Vegas was an anomaly.

“It’s the business we’re in,” Furman said. “If you want to work all the time, become a public employee.”

[desertsun41]

All that talk was with strip construction. It really is that bad. But so is residential construction in every trade.

Thats the first I heard of Unions telling other Unions to stop sending people here. Word was out that good jobs grew on trees here. But when the economy died a painful death that word never died with it. I think people are still coming here searching for paradise and all the hoopala that goes with it.

[jfkIII]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

...I think people are still coming here searching for paradise and all the hoopala that goes with it.

Always have, and I guess...always will.

[jake80]

Thanks for all the feedback, even if it's not that great of news. My wife and I were actaully thinking of relocating in Spring of '09, we wanted to "feel things out" in the interim. Dispel the rumors on how easy it is to get a job in Las Vegas.

I guess we're doing the right thing for now and just keep our eye's open for what's to come in the future. I'll definitely check back periodically as this site is really a great tool for communication/feedback.

Thanks again for the reply's.

[Yeti]

not sure about this - but I vaguely remember reading somthing in the LV Sun about how the Unions are saying "Dont come here" and that people were sneaking onto the city center site trying to get jobs.

Not sure how much of that info applies here, but just thought I would pass it on.....

[MomMom]

Originally Posted by jfkIII

Always have, and I guess...always will.

You're correct jfk...

No matter how bad things are here, they'll still come. And most of them will survive here despite how bad the economy is right now.

[PinkString]

Yes. They will survive out here because most of them have a great attitude and don't see doom and gloom around every corner.

[MomMom]

Touche' ......PinkString!

[Yeti]

Hey - my above post was retarded - I didnt see the article already posted.

/me admitting my failure