The perfect gig: being a contractor in Vegas
Considering the booming building craze in Las Vegas, you�d think every general contractor, construction worker, building engineer, architect and their families would be headed here to soak up their portion of the pot 'o gold and Vegas sun.
And perhaps those professionals and skilled workers are headed to Vegas, one of the 8,000 new move-ins each month.
But consider this: with the expansion of the Las Vegas valley - freeway construction, new home construction and office and industrial property construction, not to mention high rise condo construction - there aren't enough skilled professionals west of the Mississippi to build even half of what's proposed.
Obviously every proposed project isn't going to magically appear in this desert oasis. But if you take a visual snapshot of the Las Vegas valley - not just The Strip - in January 2006, then come back in January 2016 (or maybe even January 2010), I think you'll find a dramatic difference.
You'll find a western city that in the 80s used to be home to sprawling ranches, pick-up trucks and lots of desert space that is growing up - going vertical. You'll find a 111 year-old city that's approaching the limits of its naturally imposed borders and gobbling up BLM land as fast as a hungry American family on Thanksgiving.
So, if you're reading this and wondering what to do with your life, perhaps a Las Vegas construction industry job is calling your name as loudly as the casinos are calling for your cash.
