Dec. 4--Unemployment stands at a 15-year high in Florida, but at least one place is hiring: the W Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? -- Click Here., a chic 517-room resort scheduled to debut in March with 350 jobs.

The hotel opened a "Talent Center" at the Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale this week and began accepting applications on its Web site too. The workers it seeks run the gamut -- from housekeepers to front desk clerks, accountants to executives, with pay from about $10 an hour to more than $100,000 a year, said general manager Scott Brooks. Hundreds of applicants already have turned out, many hungry for work after months searching in a stalled economy.

Stephen Voison, 55, dressed in a white shirt and bold tie, waited eagerly in line to meet recruiters. The Fort Lauderdale resident said he lost his job Sept. 11 this year as a driver for a company that makes blueprints for buildings. A victim of the construction industry meltdown, he has been trying to find work since then, "scraping by" on $204 a week in unemployment insurance and $174 a month in food stamps.

Voison pulls out a paper listing dozens of companies he has contacted: "But not even close, not even an interview," he said.

Tashnekqua Johnson, 22, of Deerfield Beach, sporting big golden earrings, also waited. She said she had been laid off two years ago as a movie theater cashier and had only odd jobs since, from baby-sitting to hair-styling.

"I'll do anything at the hotel, even if I have to get on my hands and knees and scrub floors," Johnson said. "They say Florida is the Sunshine State, the land of the free, but I don't see it."

Jobs at South Florida hotels and tourism overall have held up well so far this year, especially compared to construction, finance and retail, which were hit harder by the credit crunch. Last month's opening of the Fontainebleau resort in Miami Beach added 1,500 jobs.

In the year ended in October, leisure and hospitality employment grew in the tri-county area, adding 1,300 jobs to reach 253,100, up 0.5 percent. The total rose in Broward and Miami-Dade and slipped in Palm Beach counties, said the state Agency for Workforce Innovation.

But with travel softening, hotels are cautious.

Many, including the 998-room Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, which employs 1,300 people, have placed a lid on adding jobs. Some have cut positions, including the 550-room Breakers in Palm Beach, where staff is down about 10 percent to 2,000 employees since last winter. And others, such as the 264-unit Sheraton Suites Plantation with about 110 employees, are trimming hours for staff as business slips, executives said.

Steven Pereira, 40, of Aventura, said the luxury hotel where he works in Miami-Dade County sliced hours for some guest services staff such as bellmen and valets. He explored opportunities with the W this week, curious about what the new beachfront resort might offer a manager with 12 years' hotel experience and fluency in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Brooks of the W Fort Lauderdale said he is keen on "attitude and aptitude." Experience is required for just a few positions such as engineering and accounting. The resort will train staff in job specifics and its brand image, known as hip and edgy.

"We want confident people," Brooks said. " One of the questions I ask almost every person is: 'How do your co-workers perceive you?' And what I hope to hear in the answer is 'Fun.'"

The W Fort Lauderdale will face a slow economy when it opens, but projects room rates to average about $280 a night, Brooks said. It will be the first W resort in Florida, with another under construction in Miami Beach.

Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@Sun Sentinel.com or 305-810- 5009.

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