Study: Casino jobs benefit Mass. workforce

The gaming industry, particularly the unionized sector of the casino hotel industry, provides good jobs with good wages and benefits for often neglected parts of the workforce such as those without college degrees, women, and people of color.

That's a finding of a new report titled,“Gaming in Massachusetts: Can Casinos Bring ‘Good Jobs’ to the Commonwealth?” The report was released by the Labor Resource Center at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and it was funded by the Construction Institute and the Future of Work in Massachusetts project, according to a UMass press release.

“In the conversion to a service-based economy, we lost many jobs with good wages and benefits that were available to workers without a college education," Susan Moir, an author of the study and the director of the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston, said in a statement. "This study found that good jobs do exist in the gaming industry.”

The report's release comes shortly after the resignation of Salvatore F. DiMasi as the Speaker of the Massachusetts House. DiMasi was a staunch opponent of a casino gambling plan put forth by Governor Deval L. Patrick last year. Please click here to read a Globe story that suggests that DiMasi's departure could improve the odds for casino plans.

For a complete copy of the UMass report, please visit www.lrc.umb.edu.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)