Project CityCenter, expected to cost $7 billion, is just over four months into its expected three years of construction. Work churns along 24 hours a day to build the MGM Mirage's urban village that will include hotels, shopping, condominiums and a casino.

About 700 crafts workers are at the site, which spans 66 acres between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo. There are about 200 professional administrators, too, according to Perini Building Co.

"It would be like three Bellagios going up at once," said Marc Furman, who heads five Nevada-based chapters of the Carpenter's Union. "What makes it different is that there are so many structures going up at the same time, and they want them all done around the same time."

The MGM Mirage project is expected to employ 7,000 construction workers on the site at its peak. The local trade construction unions represent about 30,000.

The Carpenter's Union has about 350 members at the site now, and by the end of the year it expects to have almost 500 workers there pouring concrete and fixing metal studs in place. At the project's peak, the carpenters expect between 2,000 and 3,000 members to be working there.

"We're the first guys on, the last guys off," Furman said. "We'll be putting up the furniture, hanging mirrors — anything with a screwdriver."

Construction continues on MGM Mirage's Project CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip. CityCenter will employ an estimated 12,000 people when the hotel and retail center are open for business. Photo by Steve Marcus

The Plasterers and Cement Masons Union Local 797 has about 60 workers at CityCenter now, said business agent Kenny Peterson.

"To have that much work on one job site is going to be wonderful," Peterson said. "At its full capacity, we anticipate having over 300 members from our local on that job site alone."

Demand will only increase as a slew of mega-projects ramp up next summer. Echelon Place, M Resort and Aliante Station will soon join construction at CityCenter, Encore and Palazzo.

Trade groups are expecting wages to rise above union rates at these large projects as demand intensifies.

But there is not a shortage of carpenters at the moment, Furman said.

"The Carpenters have over 10,000 members," he said. "Right as we speak I have 800 carpenters and 400 drywallers, which is a month and a half-long list."