By: Las Vegas Now Staff
One boost to the local economy in Las Vegas is coming in the form of two new casinos looking to hire thousands of employees. But will it be the shot in the arm the struggling economy needs?
Experts Eyewitness News spoke with said the 6,500 new jobs created on the Las Vegas Strip and off will be just a band aid for the struggling local economy.
Aliante Station will open in October at the north end of the valley creating 1,200 new jobs and in December Steve Wynn's Encore opens with 5,300 new employees. Both casinos are in the hiring process. To give you an idea of how sought after these jobs are, Encore is expecting 65,000 applications.
“For every job that we create in the travel and tourism sector, that creates an additional job elsewhere in the economy. So, if we have 6,000 - 7,000 jobs coming online with a project, that could multiply its way to a much larger number,” said Keith Schwer, UNLV professor.
Schwer says the Las Vegas recession started last fall and he doesn't expect these jobs to pull us out of it. He says an upswing will be seen when the national economy gets better.
