North County

Leominster Credit Union said Wednesday its president and CEO will retire at the end of November and be replaced by its chief operating officer, its first female to hold the top position.

The unemployment rate in the Worcester area improved to 10.3% in August, down from 14.9% a month earlier, according to new data Wednesday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

People are on the move at Blackstone Valley Education Hub, bankHometown, College of the Holy Cross and more.

While the economy was growing into the longest economic expansion in the nation’s history, most Worcester County neighborhoods missed out – not only failing to capture rising income and attracting new residents but even going backward in many cases.

The modern Massachusetts economy has been growing for 400 years, since settlers first landed in Plymouth in 1620. And for 245 of those 400 years – more than 60% – the Massachusetts economy was tied to the legal institution of slavery.

Three small businesses in downtown Fitchburg received loans totaling $55,000 from the North Central Massachusetts Development Corp., the development arm of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, the organization announced on Friday. 

Little Leaf Farms in Devens has doubled its greenhouse growing capacity to 10 acres, allowing the hydroponic greens manufacturer to produce more than 2 million packages of lettuce each month, the company announced on Wednesday.

Girouard Tool Corp., a Leominster injection molding company, was approved Thursday by the state for tax breaks to help make possible a $2.8-million expansion, and a Fitchburg restaurant has received a tax credit to move downtown.

A retail plaza on Route 12 just south of downtown Leominster has been bought by a Paxton resident for just under $2.4 million.

YOU Inc., a Worcester behavioral health and education agency, has sold an educational campus straddling the Templeton and Winchendon line for $3.4 million to a Florida addiction services firm.