March 2018 Rate Remains at 3.4 Percent Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips have announced the March 2018 statewide unemployment rate for Tennessee remained near historic lows and matched the revised rate from the previous month. The preliminary, seasonally adjusted rate for March was 3.4 percent, which mirrored the revised rate for Februar ...

Bell (formerly Bell helicopter), a division of Textron, announced Monday it had let 120 employees go. That figure includes an undisclosed number from the Piney Flats, Tenn., facility. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the separations, but refused to disclose how many employees were cut from any single location, or whether those employees were line workers, management, or others. Textron recently dive ...

Photo above: Brian Tapp and Tyler Engle     The town of Erwin Tuesday opened its first co-working space, branded "Square One."     "When you combine Erwin fiber and a really cool workspace, you get Square One," said Lee Brown, general manager of Erwin Utilities, which partnered with the Joint Economic Development Board of Unicoi County to create the town's first co-working environment.     "So many people w ...

Photo above: Ballad Health Chairman Alan Levine   Ballad Health is in the process of eliminating around 150 jobs.  The positions affected by elimination of duplicative jobs include senior-level executives as well as middle management and front-line team members.  An additional 49 empty positions have already been eliminated through attrition. At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Ballad Chairman and ...

Jim McGlothlin Eight years ago, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player headlined a fund-raiser golf tournament at the Olde Farm that raised $15.1 million for the Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Va. Round two is upcoming. A tournament that organizer and long-time Mountain Mission School supporter Jim McGlothlin says will feature 10 Hall of Famers from several sports will be held on the same course S ...

Southwest Virginia Teachers tour Mohawk Industries as part of the IGNITE program, Oct. 2017, file photo Virginia Governor Ralph Northam Tuesday announced five regional projects funded through GO Virginia (Growth and Opportunity for Virginia) grants totaling $1,115,300, including $250,000 for Region 1. Those funds will go to the United Way of Southwest Virginia to help expand the IGNITE program. The Ignite P ...

ECD Commissioner Robert Rolfe The sale to the county of a 37-acre tract adjacent to the Washington County Industrial Park closed last Thursday, the same day the county received word the smaller of two existing tracts in the park had received Select Tennessee Certified Site status from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The new land will grow the park to greater than 100 acres. T ...

The small business optimism index reached its 16th consecutive month in the top five percent of 45 years of survey readings, according to the NFIB Small Business Economic Trends survey, released today. The 104.7 March reading, down from 107.6 in February, remains among the highest in survey history and for the first time since 1982, taxes received the fewest number of votes as the number one problem. Taxes ...

Photo above: VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel Jonathan Belcher, right, presents a ceremonial check for the Apex Leasing project in Buchanan County. From left are Jay Rife, Buchanan County Industrial Development Authority; Joe Gary Street and Pete Savage, West River/Apex Leasing; and Belcher.   On March 29 VCEDA closed an up to $600,000 loan for Apex Leasing Corporation, an affiliate of West Riv ...

Rural broadband service provider Sunset Digital Communications announced recently it will open a new branch office in Tazewell, Va., to house support teams for its Virginia customers in the Tazewell, Russell, Buchanan, Wythe and Bland county areas. The new project in Tazewell is expected to create at least 50 new jobs. The announcement was made by Sunset's Paul and Ryan Elswick at the Tazewell Town Office. ...