Economy

On Thursday, Boston nonprofit American Student Assistance awarded a $450,000 grant to the Blackstone Valley Superintendents' Consortium to increase workforce training opportunities for high school students, particularly those from underserved populations. 

The North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce released the first Regional Economic Development Plan in 25 years on Monday outlining an extensive economic development strategy focused on unifying the region by improving connectivity, developing the workforce, and attracting visitors.

The unemployment rate in the Worcester metropolitan area took a slight upward turn for the second time since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Worcester science museum The EcoTarium announced on Thursday its workers have voted to join the union AFSCME Council 93, over the objections of the museum board.

With Mimi Sheller of Philadelphia’s Drexel University just named incoming dean, The Global School at Worcester Polytechnic University has launched as a formalizing and furthering of something the university has done all along: global projects. 

Filling positions hasn’t been easy over the past few years. That’s related to both pressures created by the COVID-19 pandemic and longer-term issues in the healthcare industry.

The coronavirus pandemic has opened up a new world, one workers aren’t eager to give up.

As Central Massachusetts, and the nation, recovers from the sharpest recession in its history, companies around the region are coping with the same situation.

Massachusetts employers added 5,100 jobs in April as the state's unemployment rate dropped to 6.5 percent, 0.2 percentage points below the revised March rate of 6.7 percent, labor officials announced Friday.

Amid a pandemic-prompted reassessment of the state's unemployment system, some lawmakers and labor advocates want to secure reforms that would make jobless aid more accessible to lower-wage workers or those with varying schedules.