State labor department reports 'welcome' job gains in August
Connecticut added an estimated 2,800 nonagricultural jobs last month and gained 1,600 in July, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Preliminary estimates released a month ago had indicated the state lost 100 jobs in July.
“August’s payroll employment was up 2,800 over July and the July numbers were revised up from a small loss to a 1,600 gain,” Andy Condon, director of the department’s Office of Research, said in a statement. “We saw gains in six of the 10 major industry sectors we measure. In addition, the labor force grew for the first time in many months.”
The number of unemployed residents in the state was estimated at 68,100 in August, down by 900 from the previous month. Connecticut's unemployment, unchanged since July, is 3.6 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.7 percent.
“The August jobs report for Connecticut was a welcome change,” said Pete Gioia, economic adviser for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the state’s largest business group.
Gioia said the state has now recovered 83 percent of the jobs it lost during the Great Recession in 2008-10, with the private sector having recovered all of the jobs it lost.
"If this pace of job recovery continues, we will get to full recovery by early 2020,” he said.
Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for DataCore Partners, reported in his monthly newsletter Thursday that the state’s current rate of job growth indicates the Connecticut economy is not likely to see full job recovery until mid-2021.
“As has been stated in recent newsletters, the odds are that both Connecticut and the nation are apt to be encountering a full-blown national recession prior to full job recovery in Connecticut, which raises serious questions about the state's fiscal health over the near-term,” he wrote.
Klepper-Smith characterized the state’s August job numbers as “clearly better than expected” and “a pleasant upside surprise given the weak domestic data and new paid family leave initiatives statewide.”
Private-sector employment in Connecticut grew by 2,500 jobs in August, while the government sector — all federal, state and local employment, including public higher education and tribal casino employment — added 300 jobs.
The leisure-and-hospitality sector added 1,400 jobs, the most of any sector. Education and health services lost 900 positions.
Four of the state’s six labor market areas saw job increases, led by the Hartford area, which added 800 jobs. The Norwich-New London-Westerly area added 100 jobs.
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