Economy

The Massachusetts unemployment rate improved to 7.8% in January despite the state reaching all-time highs in coronavirus cases over the month, according to new data released Friday.

In the middle of last March, lots of Worcester County businesses were forced to close or at least quickly roll back or change operations. A year later, the economic hit is still profound.

A year after the pandemic hit, new unemployment claims across Massachusetts remain stubbornly high — roughly in line with last summer, when cases were lower, a vaccine was less certain and a fall and winter spike was widely expected.

UMass Medical School called a unionization vote this week by physicians in training a first step in a process and called the residents and fellows valued members of its healthcare teams.

Saint Vincent Hospital is preparing for a potential nurses strike but won't let the prospect of having to call in staffing help keep it from covering shifts at a COVID-19 vaccination site at Worcester State University.

Vaccines are being distributed, financial savings have brought pent-up demand, and federal stimulus aid has totaled the equivalent of roughly 17% of the American economy — with potentially far more still to come. That's enough for Michelle Meyer, a managing director and head of U.S. economics for Bank of America Global Research, to find optimism in the nation's economy after the coronavirus pandemic ends.

Saint Vincent Hospital's 800 registered nurses have voted to strike, alleging conditions at the Worcester hospital have jeopardized the safety of their patients.

Marlborough's Boston Scientific and Worcester's Hanover Insurance Group are among 767 companies nationwide lauded for LGBTQ equality.

The Worcester-area job market took a hit in December when coronavirus cases were rising to all-time highs around the holidays.

After Massachusetts spent much of 2020 improving its monthly unemployment rate, that progress reversed slightly in December to end the year. The rate rose 0.7 percentage points to hit 7.4%.