Universal’s Growth Brings 3,500 New Jobs

By Balazs Szekely, Associate Editor

The upcoming expansion at Universal Orlando Resort will create 3,500 new permanent jobs during 2014, according to the management’s announcement. That is about the same amount of employees as Universal Orlando has hired in the past four years.

The addition of a new 1,800-room Cabana Bay Beach Resort, eight new CityWalk venues and the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley calls for the establishment of a wide range of managerial, professional, high-tech, guest service and other positions. These include management opportunities in theme park operations, food and beverage, retail and hospitality; skilled technical positions; culinary positions as well as hourly positions in guest services in various areas of operation. More than one third of the new jobs will be managerial or other highly skilled positions.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley, for the time being, is a more than 20-acre construction site at Universal Studios, soon to become home to Universal Orlando’s newest theme park entertainment project. A similar project is already present at the Universal’s Islands of Adventure since 2010, called Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade.

A new, 1,800-room hotel is also among the additions. The Cabana Bay Beach Resort, to be inaugurated later this year, will be Universal Orlando’s fourth on-site hotel and will include 900 family suites and 900 standard guest rooms.

The transformation of CityWalk is already in progress since late 2013 and will bring a total of eight new venues to the entertainment complex by the end of this year.

Image of Universal’s Islands of Adventure, courtesy of Universal Orlando Resort