Las Vegas job fair will have over 130 companies hiring

An estimated 130 employers are preparing to meet Southern Nevada job seekers face-to-face at the annual Spring Job Fair on Friday.

Clark County will host the employment event from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall, it was previously announced.

“We lead the nation in job growth,” County Commissioner Jim Gibson said during a news conference Monday. “So make no mistake, there are a lot of opportunities.”

The event, put on in partnership with the EmployNV Business Hub, typically has employers with on-the-spot hiring and others with job offers subject to background checks. Clark County and state employment officials promoted other elements of the fair including free parking, limited free child care for potty-trained children between 3 and 6 years old and full services from a satellite EmployNV hub — including career exploration through virtual reality headsets — that can support job seekers.

Job seekers can preregister for the event to save time at the door and view other participating employers. They can also upload their résumés for employers to preview, a new feature, according to the county.

The job fair comes at a time when the state has the highest job growth in the nation at 3.8 percent as of December 2023, but also the highest unemployment rate at 5.4 percent. David Schmidt, chief economist for the state’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, said the dichotomy suggests a balance between job seekers — many of whom, data show, are finding jobs within six months — and open positions in the labor market.

“It’s not that nobody else could be working, but it’s that there’s a balance between people looking for work and employers looking for workers,” Schmidt said. “We have more people entering the labor market or re-entering the labor market or voluntarily left their last job, as opposed to people who lost it. And that’s more short term, so it’s not people unemployed and then stuck there. It’s people who look for work, and then find work and flow out.”

Job growth can especially be noted in Nevada’s manufacturing sector, according to state data. Manufacturing employment has grown nearly 21 percent since December 2019. Schmidt noted that data does not include Tesla’s 2016 opening of a factory in northern Nevada.

PLI Cards, a loyalty and hospitality cards manufacturer headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, will be hiring for about 100 positions — many entry-level machine operators starting at $16 per hour — at Friday’s job fair following the recent opening of a second, 100,000-square-foot facility in the Las Vegas Valley. Talent Acquisition Specialist Rebecca Ferguson said the company will participate in the job fair because it gives them better visibility to workers and allows them to do initial interviews.

“People have seen our jobs on Indeed, but wouldn’t it be great to have a better relationship impact if we actually show up in person?” Ferguson said. “Sometimes you can just be applying and you might not hear back at all. I want to be able to calm those nerves, answer any questions they may have and see who might be interested in us.”

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.