Covid impact: MGM Resorts to lay off 18,000 jobs

LAS VEGAS:

Casino operator MGM Resorts International informed its staff it would lay off 18,000 furloughed employees in the United States as the coronavirus-induced travel curbs hurt its operations.

The company will start the process on Monday, according to a letter from Chief Executive Officer Bill Hornbuckle to employees and seen by Reuters. MGM employed nearly 52,000 fulltime and 18,000 part-time people in the United States as of December 31.

“Federal law requires companies to provide a date of separation for furloughed employees who are not recalled within six months. Regrettably, August 31, marks (that) date,” Hornbuckle said in the letter.

Many companies have decided to cut jobs as the US economy recorded its sharpest contraction in at least 73 years in the second quarter due to pandemic-led disruptions, with corporate profits sinking deeper.

MGM was forced to close all of its casinos and furlough about 62,000 of its workforce in the United States in March due to the lockdowns.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2020.

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