When she was one of 15 bank employees laid off from her job processing transactions on customer accounts, 52-year-old Margarita Feliciano decided to go back to the work she enjoyed when she was in her 20s – taking care of patients in their homes. more

During the past year, construction employment in Rhode Island fell nearly 9 percent, or 1,400 jobs, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. more

Despite the three-tenths of a percentage point decline in its unemployment rate in April, to 8.8 percent, Rhode Island still has the sixth-highest jobless rate in the nation, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. more

Rhode Island’s unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent in April, the 10th consecutive monthly drop in the jobless rate and the lowest it has been since October 2008, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training said Thursday. more

Erik and Dawn Deneault have two healthy children and were blindsided when their third child, Danica, was born with brain malformations. Their life suddenly consisted of days and weeks of medical visits in Providence and Boston and months of searching for a way to decrease their daughter’s 40 to 50 seizures a day. more

Job openings in the U.S. eased in March from an almost five-year high, indicating employers are waiting to see how the economy performs as federal budget cuts take effect. more

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Department of Health has awarded the state’s Safe Place for Teens to Work Award to the Pawtucket Red Sox. more

Unemployment rates fell year over year in March in 306 of the United States’ 372 metropolitan areas, including the Providence-Fall River-Warwick metro, according to the latest non-seasonally adjusted data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. more

To the Editor: The Governor’s Workforce Board (GWB) deeply appreciates the vote of support for job training expressed in the PBN’s editorial entitled “Broad job training efforts a good sign” (4/15/13). The editorial specifically commends the GWB for two grants recently awarded to Amos House in Providence and Connecting Children and Families in Woonsocket to partner with employers in the food-service industry to train 120 homeless, unemployed and underemployed Rhode Islanders. These awards were two of 10 Innovative Partnership grants – totaling nearly $2 million – that were announced in March by Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee to support innovative business-education partnerships that will prepare unemployed Rhode Islanders with the skills that businesses need to fill current and future vacancies in high-growth occupations and industries. more

Women-owned businesses in Rhode Island are not growing at the rate as those in the rest of the country. Even more alarming, while the number of businesses is growing at that slower pace, the number of people employed by women-owned companies has actually shrunk since 1997, according to a survey by American Express. more