The San Diego area’s $1 billion casino building boom is a boon for job seekers. On Tuesday, Sycuan Casino announced it’s looking for a new director of sales — the first of more than 700 jobs that will be generated by a $226 million expansion.

With six of the region’s 10 casinos undergoing expansion projects — adding hotels, spas, pool complexes, restaurants and casino floor space — nearly 3,000 full- and part-time jobs are being created. That figure doesn’t include thousands of construction workers who have also been put to work. Staff salaries range from entry-level pay to six figures.

“Wow, if any company were coming into town saying they’re going to create 3,000 jobs, we’d be jumping up and down,” said Phil Blair, president of the staffing agency Manpower.

With the county’s jobless rate at 3.3 percent, San Diego area casinos find themselves not only locked in a fierce battle for customers but also housekeepers, cooks, front desk clerks, cashiers, bartenders, valets, hospitality managers, security guards, IT workers and more.


“It’s an employee’s world right now,” Blair said, adding that San Diego’s thriving tourism and hospitality industry only adds to the pressure casinos face in hiring, training and retaining workers.

“You need to be a people person with what we call ‘soft skills,’ ” Blair said.

“You know the difference when you walk into a resort and the gardener says, ‘Hello, how’s your day going?’ versus looking straight ahead, people who shake you hand and say, “Welcome to Pechanga or welcome to Viejas,’” he said.

“You can’t teach customer service overnight, that takes time and these places need to hit the ground running. … They’re filling the pools with water as we speak.”


Blair added that casinos are often located in fairly remote areas, making traveling to work potentially expensive and time-consuming. Potential employees need to feel like they’re not just getting a job but starting on a career path.

“If I were these HR people, I’d be trying to think way out of the box on trying to attract (job prospects) them. Otherwise, they’ll look closer to home or for something that pays more. And there are so many, employees can say, ‘I can drive north, I can drive east, and I can drive south,’ and that’s the challenge for these casinos.”

More than half of the approximately 3,000 new employees will be reporting to work in the coming weeks. Viejas Casino & Resort, which will open a new 159-room, all-suites hotel and spa on Feb. 1, said the project created 750 new jobs. Barona Resort & Casino will unveil its newly enlarged casino in mid-February. (Barona has declined to reveal the cost of the expansion or the number of resulting jobs.)

And on Tuesday, Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, announced a March 3 grand opening for its $300 million expansion — recently revised up from $285 million — that will include a concert by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler at a newly built, 100,000-square-foot event center. To fill its 750 new jobs, Pechanga held a series of job fairs last year, reaching into northern San Diego County for applicants.


Acknowledging the tight labor market it faces amid all the hospitality outlets in Temecula wine country, Pechanga said it had sweetened its benefits packages. In advance of a Jan. 4 job fair to fill 200 positions for its new 4.5-acre pool area, Pechanga touted added company perks that include a free meal for every scheduled shift, college tuition reimbursement, accelerated accrual for paid time off and increased medical and dental benefits for full-time and select part-time employees.

Even when they’re not expanding, casinos are perpetually in hiring mode. The October 2016 opening of Hollywood Casino Jamul-San Diego resulted in an estimated 1,000 jobs created and while it’s currently not expanding, on Tuesday it held a job fair to fill open positions.

According to a 2016 study prepared by Beacon Economics for the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, tribal gaming operations supported some 40,700 direct jobs statewide, of which 24,100 were in Southern California. Economist Kelly Cunningham said San Diego County casinos likely account for the majority of those jobs.

And the numbers keep growing. Pala Casino Spa & Resort’s $170 million construction project, including a new hotel tower and expanded pool area, will generate 200 new resort jobs. And Valley View Casino & Hotel will hire an estimated 80 workers when its $50 million expansion and remodel is completed next year.


Sycuan, one of San Diego County’s first casinos, is building a full-scale resort with its first hotel — a 12-story, 300-room tower — a spa, new restaurants, a pool complex with a lazy river and a conference and event center. Tuesday’s announcement said they’ll be hiring in the hotel, food and beverage and casino departments, beginning with leadership positions during the first half of 2018. Sycuan will hold a series of job fairs later in the year, with an eye toward an early 2019 opening for the new hotel and resort.

Andrew Kerzmann, Sycuan’s vice president of hotel operations said his first hospitality job was as a part-time front desk clerk at a Holiday Inn Express when he was in college.

“These aren’t just jobs per se,” he said. “We want people to see the potential career path in hospitality. We have a very high rate of promotion. … We reinvest in our team members and recognize their performance through growth and development.”

Kerzmann said Sycuan is partnering with community colleges and career centers around the region to get that message out. They’ll also trumpet its health and retirement benefits as well as free transportation to the El Cajon casino from around the region via casino buses.


Sycuan also has an on-site dental and medical center.

“You can go over on your lunch break and get your teeth cleaned,” Kerzmann said. “I just did that last week.”

Meanwhile, increased construction costs were only part of the reason why Pechanga’s expansion price tag went up. A spokeswoman said upgrades and amenities were added to the project after development was underway.

They includes two covered moving sidewalks from the parking garage, mechanized seating to make for quick set up in the new Summit event center and four new high-end retail shops, including a woman’s boutique that will sell such designer brands as Versace and Prada.


Union-Tribune staff writer Lori Weisberg contributed to this report.