Atlantic City Region Job Loss Hit 9,900 Over Past 12 Months
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) - The Atlantic City region lost 9,900 jobs over the past 12 months, battered by the closure of four of Atlantic City's 12 casinos.
The decline announced Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was the largest non-farm job loss of 318 metropolitan areas studied by the bureau.
The next greatest loss was in the Davenport, Iowa area, which lost 2,200 jobs over the same period.
The Atlantic City area, which includes Hammonton, also had the highest percentage of job losses at 7.3 percent. Ocean City was down 3.4 percent.
A fifth casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, is scheduled to close Dec. 20, putting an additional 3,000 people out of work.
The casino closings have accounted for 8,000 lost jobs this year.
The old Showboat casino on the Atlantic City boardwalk will be repurposed as a satellite campus for a southern New Jersey college.
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey said Wednesday it is buying the former Showboat casino and plans to use it as a satellite campus. The sale price was not announced, nor was a target closing date released.
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