Atlantic City, NJ has been a tourist destination for well over a century. Now the city is getting ready for a heavy round of lost jobs. According to Trump Entertainment Resorts, Trump Plaza casino will close its doors. The company announced that over 1,000 letters will go out to employees warning that they will be out of a job on September 16 of this year. This will be the fourth and perhaps the most famous of the casinos to fail in Atlantic City.
It is estimated that over 7,800 casino jobs have been lost since January 2014 and the prospects do not look good for the city or the state of New Jersey. State Sen. Jim Whalum said, “It’s a disaster; this is going to impact all sectors of the economy, from big stores to real estate values and on and on.” In the past year, the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, Revel Casino-Hotel and Showboat Casino Hotel have all announced that they will be closing at the end of the summer tourist season.
This will only fuel the dire situation for Atlantic City whose unemployment rate is 14.9 percent. Within that percentage is an estimated 25 percent being unemployed casino workers. Hardest hit is the black community, which has always depended on the Boardwalk economy. Reports are that homeless shelters are overflowing and that people are in desperate need. Because many charity groups in the area depended on donated, leftovers from the casinos, meals will be harder to come by for the poor and elderly.
