Leominster

The North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce announced Monday its economic development affiliate, the North Central Massachusetts Development Corp., is launching a new small business loan program. 

Worcester Business Journal began listing the most influential people in the Central Massachusetts economy in 2013, using various iterations of the concept to arrive at the Power 50, which started in 2018.

The Power 50 may not necessarily hold the most power in the region, but they are the people who most effectively wielded their power to have an outsized influence on the economy and the community within the last year.

The labor force in the Greater Worcester metropolitan area continued to grow in March, with the unemployment rate in the region dropping to 3.9%.

The move applies to all Reliant locations, which span across Worcester County and the MetroWest area. The move comes in the wake of staffing shortages at the group, a problem augmented across the healthcare industry by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bruce Platzman, the co-founder and CEO of Leominster-based furniture manufacturer AIS, will step down from his CEO role in June.

Now, in its seventh year, the Manufacturing Excellence Awards seeks to accentuate the top performers in a highly complex and varied industry.

Hometown Financial Group, Inc., the holding company for bankHometown in Oxford, plans to acquire Randolph Bancorp, Inc. the Quincy-based holding company of Envision Bank, for $146.5 million.

When she opened her first women’s healthcare boutique more than 20 years ago, Walsh-Aframe’s goal was to support women going through one of the most physically and emotionally challenging times in their lives as they navigated the trauma of being breast cancer survivors.

A 588,000-square-foot industrial property in Leominster, which is mainly leased to furniture manufacturer AIS, Inc., sold for $66.5 million in a deal closed Friday.