Unemployment Rate Edges Upward To 8.1% In Connecticut

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- The news was a bit bad in Connecticut when it came to the June jobless numbers: Employment was little changed as the unemployment rate inched higher to 8.1 percent, the state Department of Labor said.

The jobless rate edged up slightly in June in Connecticut, although small gains were seen in the Bridgeport-Norwalk-Stamford market.
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by The Daily Voice

07/21/2013 4:00 a.m.

Connecticut saw a small monthly gain of 500 nonfarm jobs, or 0.03 percent, marking the fourth monthly job increase in a row and the fifth monthly gain in the first six months of 2013.

But the state’s unemployment rate edged higher to 8.1 percent in June. The unemployment rate had held steady at 8.0 percent for the four prior months. And Connecticut’s unemployment rate is down four-tenths of a percentage point from June 2012 when it was 8.5 percent.

“The greatly extended public school year due to storm disruptions (Sandy and blizzard) seemed to impact typical seasonal job patterns in education and may have some influence on summer hiring patterns going forward,” said Andy Condon, Director of the Office of Research. “The second wettest June on record in the state may have dampened job growth in some sectors as well.”

Four of the six major Connecticut Labor Market Areas recorded job gains in June, while two posted losses:

The two largest areas, the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk LMA (with 3,000 new jobs, or 0.7 percent, considered statistically significant) and the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford LMA (with 2,700 new jobs, or 0.5 percent) performed the best in job growth in June,
The Norwich-New London LMA (with 1,300 new jobs, or 1.0 percent) and the Waterbury LMA (with 400 new jobs, or 0.6 percent) added jobs as well.
The New Haven LMA (with a loss of 2,500 jobs, or 0.9 percent) was the largest declining area and the job loss was considered statistically significant. The Danbury LMA (with a loss of 100 jobs, or -0.2 percent) was just slightly down.

Connecticut has now recovered 58,700 positions, or 48.4 percent of the 121,200 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs that were lost in the state in the March 2008 to February 2010 employment recession. The Connecticut jobs recovery is now 40 months old and is averaging 1,468 jobs per month since February 2010.

The preliminary estimates were calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and released by the Connecticut Department of Labor, Office of Research.

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