State loses Connecticut jobs

Posted on January 29, 2014

Although the unemployment rate fell, the state lost Connecticut jobs in December.

According to labor market information, Connecticut jobs declined 3,900 (-0.2%, seasonally adjusted) to a level of 1,651,200 jobs in December.

The private sector dropped 3,800 (-0.3%) jobs and government positions fell by 100 (-0.04%). Nonfarm employment has grown 11,500 (0.7%) jobs since December 2012 (and year to date).

The state’s unemployment rate is now eight-tenths of a percentage point below a year ago (8.2%). This is the fourth straight monthly decline in the unemployment rate since summer and builds on November’s three-tenths of a point fall. The reduction in the number of unemployed residents in the state over the year is 17,171 (-11.2%).

The state lost 3,900 (-0.2%) jobs, a reversal of the 3,800 jobs (0.2%) added in November. The private sector (-3,800, -0.3%) and the government supersector (-100, -0.04%) both lost jobs last month. Connecticut has now added 11,500 total nonfarm jobs (0.7%) since December 2012, for a seasonally adjusted total of 1,651,200. Hiring in the private sector has been better over the year, adding 12,800 positions (0.9%). Government is down 1,300 (-0.5%) positions since December 2012.

Connecticut has now recovered 59,400 positions, or 49.0% of the 121,200 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs that were lost in the state in the March 2008 – February 2010 employment recession. Connecticut’s jobs recovery is now 46 months old and is averaging approximately 1,291 jobs per month since February 2010. The private sector has recovered a little faster and has now regained 67,600 (59.3%, 1,470 per month) of the 114,000 private jobs that were lost during the same period.

“Connecticut’s payroll job counts appear to have been affected by bad winter weather around the time of the survey reference week,” said Andy Condon, Director of the Office of Research. “On a brighter note, the state’s unemployment rate continues to fall, and for better reasons than has sometimes been the case in the recent past. Declines in the number of unemployed residents largely were the result of employment rather than individuals leaving the labor force.”