A Request for Public Comment: Amended Plainridge Park Casino Workforce Plan
- March 06, 2019
- by MGC Communications
- 0 comments
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission hereby requests public comment on the draft amended Plainridge Park Casino Strategic Plan To Engage & Recruit the Diverse, Under & Unemployed Workforce Population (Workforce Plan).
Please email comments to mgccomments@state.ma.us with ‘Plainridge Park Casino Workforce Plan’ in the subject line. All public comments are due to the MGC by March 27, 2019.
Plainridge Park Casino, at the request of MGC staff, has amended its Workforce Plan originally submitted to the Commission in August 2014 before its June 2015 opening. Plainridge Park has submitted this updated workforce development plan with revised diversity and local hiring goals and a new Massachusetts resident goal that takes into account the lower unemployment rates, more competitive gaming market, the neighboring economy of Rhode Island, as well as the recent changes to the Massachusetts minimum wage.
The economic environment in Massachusetts has changed considerably since Plainridge Park’s submission of the RFA-2 Application in 2013 and the subsequent submission of the initial workforce plan. The unemployment rate in Massachusetts has dropped from 6.1% to 2.7%, a total of 3.4 percentage points. As of December 2018, the unemployment rate for Plainridge Park Casino’s host community, Plainville, was 2.5%. In December 2018 the local surrounding area unemployment rates were: Wrentham 2.4%, Attleboro 2.9%, North Attleboro 2.6%, Mansfield 2.3%, and Foxborough 2.3%. The Massachusetts rate and all the local surrounding areas are below the national unemployment rate of 3.9%. The neighboring state of Rhode Island’s unemployment rate declined to 4.3% in June 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
View amended Plainridge Park Casino Workforce Plan here.