Four Winds Casino hiring process could impact South Bend

1200 jobs just hit the market in South Bend thanks to the new casino being built as we speak. Four Winds Casino Resort in South Bend is set to open in the first quarter of 2018 and plenty of employment opportunities come with it. So how do they plan to find 1200 people before 2018?

It’s going to take some work they have a plan in place and a backup plan at that but the city says it’s definitely going to be difficult regardless.

“What we're hoping to do is, you know, fill those 1200 jobs,” said Torie Winchester, Vice President of Human Resources with Four Winds Casino Resort.

“When we open up, South Bend will have 1800 slot machines and five restaurants,” said Winchester.

The recruitment process is already underway for the new Four Winds Casino but where will these workers come from?

“They’re coming from everywhere right now. Especially in the South Bend area but all of the surrounding communities in Indiana and Michigan,” said Winchester.

The South Bend Region Economic Development tells ABC 57 News that wide worker pool could be big for the city of South Bend and it could even potentially fill some of those empty spaces in downtown apartments. It’s up to the casino, though, to reel them in.

“A lot of job fairs, recruitment through media, through radio, print, ad, so we have a lot of different techniques that we’re using right now,” said Winchester.

Christian Brown with the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce says it could be tough to fill those positions quickly due to South Bend’s unemployment rate being so low. Currently, the unemployment rate for the city is just 3.1%, but Winchester says if recruiting does begin to slow at any point, there’s a plan in place for that too.

“There's different numbers that will hit different milestones that will hit throughout the remainder of 2017 and as we get further into the job fairs we’ll start to have more individualized recruitment efforts for different areas, different departments,” said Winchester.

According to Frank Freedman, Chief Operating Officer of Four Winds Casinos, many of the available postings will be hospitality positions in food and beverage for the new property’s restaurants and bars. Traditional casino positions will also be needed.

Job fair dates are Saturday, August 5th from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Four Winds Field; Saturday, September 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Jackson Middle School; and Tuesday, October 3 from 2 to 7 p.m. at Century Center.