Business

Beginning in April, significant changes to the unemployment insurance system will require in-person case management and documented work searches for nearly 56,000 claimants.

Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Karla Davis said the state received word last week from the U.S. Department of Labor outlining new requirements for select claimants to continue receiving unemployment benefits.

Harriman’s Roane Medical Center has launched a mobile website to ensure important health care information is easily accessible to consumers accessing the Internet from their mobile devices.

The new mobile site, m.roanemedical.com, will make it easier for patients and visitors to
find the information they need quickly, such as phone numbers, maps and driving directions.

Designed specifically for mobile use, the website has been designed to be simple to navigate with easy-to-read text and pages that load quickly.

You may remember that my wife, Carol, and I grew up in Oak Ridge and schedule “Out to Lunch” high school reunion committee meetings. This lets us plan our reunions, provides an column-writing opportunity, and we get to enjoy a fun lunch.

Our reunion committee has met several times at New China Palace on Melton Hill Lake Drive in Oak Ridge, but I had never written an “Out to Lunch” column on it until this visit.

Roane County’s 8-percent January unemployment rate may be slightly higher than reported last month, but it’s still lower than it was during the same period in 2011, according to statistics released late last week from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

The state’s figures indicate the most recent posting is up 0.6 percent over December’s 7.4 percent rate.

That means 25,790 workers in the county’s 28,030 labor force were employed in January.