Economy and Jobs

Baystate Health is eliminating 354 jobs across all three of its hospitals – Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Baystate Mary Lane in Ware and Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield. The job loss includes 185 positions that are currently vacant. There will be 169 layoffs among managers and staff. The cuts are effective Aug. 19. Workers, who were advised of the layoffs earlier Wednesday, will get severance pay.

A study of statewide teen employment by the Joint Committee on Workforce Development of Massachusetts showed a drop from 53 percent in 1999 to 29 percent in 2009.

Are green jobs good jobs? Two years ago, everyone thought so. Home weatherization was going to create thousands of jobs. We could pull ourselves out of the recession, cut our energy bills, and save the climate. It was a win-win-win. Then reality set in. Weatherization today is a low-road industry. Profit margins are low. Small contractors fight each other for the work. Pay is low, training is minimal, safety is often ignored, and labor laws are frequently violated.

Federal labor officials plan to release $3 million to help create temporary jobs for people hardest hit by severe storms and tornadoes that struck central and western Massachusetts.

TESAA Union President Karen Lasser said union members representing each of the school buildings thought it was a better option to have the pink slips rescinded for most while accepting more than 60 layoffs. "We brought them all together," Lasser said. "We laid out the two options. The building reps felt it was more important, or the better option was, to rescind all letters to the 180, that the layoff shouldn’t have affected, and layoff the others. With that, people got to keep their positions and there were around 51 to 53 individuals who were displaced because of reorganization."

The funding, a National Emergency Grant, will be dispersed by the Bristol Workforce Investment Board and the Metro South/West Employment and Training Administration, according to an announcement by the Department of Labor on Thursday. It will help approximately 720 workers who were laid off from the distribution center, corporate headquarters or retail stores. The grant totals an average of nearly $6,000 for each of the 720 former workers.

The Worcester metropolitan area recorded a jobless rate of 7.9 percent in May, below the rate of 8.9 percent recorded one year earlier, according to data released today by the state.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development today reported that the May seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates were down in eight labor market areas, unchanged in six areas and up in eight areas. Statewide, the May seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 7.4 percent, which remained unchanged from the revised April rate of 7.4 percent.

YouthWorks, a government-funded teen jobs program, has received more than 2,000 applications in Central Massachusetts at a time when funding is down about 15 percent from last year while teen unemployment remains in the double digits.