Economy

State tax collections in the current fiscal year could fall as much as $500 million below benchmarks due to lost economic activity and the Legislature should act now to prepare for a downturn or the "significant likelihood" of a recession, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said Tuesday.

With closures tied to the coronavirus outbreak impacting everything from restaurants and schools to municipal offices, Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday filed a suite of legislation intended to offer a lifeline to workers forced to stay home and to cities and towns trying to keep local government operational.

On the local level, the last updated unemployment numbers were for December, when Worcester city had a 2.8% unemployment rate, the same as its November rate and an improvement from the 3.0% rate in December 2018.

Greater Worcester has fallen to the middle of the pack among smaller urban areas when it comes to job and wage growth and other workforce measures.

On Friday, Pennsylvania energy company Vision Solar officially will open its Northeast headquarters at a new 6,000-square-foot office in Harvard.

When it comes to the country's best-performing urban areas economically, the Worcester area is just OK, according to a new report by the Milken Institute.

Marlborough medical device manufacturer Hologic, Inc. on Tuesday inaugerated its 32-employee financial services center in Costa Rica, expanding the company's presence in the Central American country.

A core effort will be engaging businesses, and asking them to write specific language in their human resources policies banning employees from buying sex.

Worcester Business Journal on Saturday night received eight awards from the New England Newspaper & Press Association's Better Newspaper Competition, running the gamut from coverage of the cannabis industry to honors for investigations, feature writing, an editorial cartoon and Columnist Renee Diaz.

More than half dozen economists interviewed by WBJ said the cost overruns will make Polar Park far less likely to come close to paying for itself after it opens in 2021.