With its hotel and restaurant industries thriving, Danbury has the lowest unemployment rate in Connecticut and also is growing goods-producing jobs faster than the state as a whole with the help of big corporate players in the pharmaceutical arena.
“In three years, we had more than a 60 percent increase in the number of restaurants and more hotel rooms per capita than in any state,” said Stephen Bull, president and CEO of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce. “We still have more coming in. If that”™s not a barometer of the future strength in our corporate community, I don”™t know what is.”
The Danbury labor market area had an unemployment rate of 5 percent in June, compared to a 6.4 percent jobless rate statewide, according to a state Department of Labor report. The area saw a 1.7 increase in goods-producing jobs compared to June 2013, more than the 0.5 percent increase in the state.
The Danbury labor area added 500 net jobs in June compared to June 2013, a 0.7 percent gain. That was led by the government sector, which added 400 jobs, a 4.8 percent change, goods-producing industries, with an increase of 200 jobs, and leisure and hospitality, which rose by 100 jobs, or 1.5 percent. The service sector gained 300 jobs, a 0.5 percent increase.
Trade, transportation and utilities in Danbury lost 200 jobs in June compared to June 2013, down 1.2 percent. Professional and business services saw a year-over-year drop of 1.3 percent, with the industry employing 100 fewer people than last June.
Despite a drop in retail jobs, which fall under the trade sector, The Danbury Fair Mall, one of the largest shopping centers in New England, regularly attracts customers within a 70-mile radius, Bull said. On any given weekend, about 40 to 50 percent of the cars parked outside the mall have a New York license plate, he said. The store occupancy rate remains relatively high with many big-name and luxury retailers coming in.
“If a store at the mall is not being occupied, that means they are trying to decide from a list of applicants who they want to put in there,” Bull said. “Last year alone it added big-name retailers, including Red Robin and Arhaus, a two-story luxury furniture store.”
Not only is there a steady increase in the number of retailers coming into the city, but there is a strong staple of businesses that keep Danbury”™s job market and economy ripe.
In 2009, Matrix Realty Group L.L.C., a privately held real estate investment firm based in Smithtown, N.Y., purchased Danbury”™s Matrix Corporate Center on Old Ridgebury Road, with tenants including industrial gas company Praxair Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and General Motors.
A number of companies are expanding, including Belimo Air Control USA Inc., which is closing on a new 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the city. MannKind Corp., a biopharmaceutical company that has been in Danbury for the last seven years, is seeking city approval for new land to increase the size and scope of its facility.
“It”™s reclaiming a brownfield and waiting for approval on a drug from the FDA,” Bull said. “The new drug will be used to treat different types of breathing problems. If that”™s approved, the company will be ramping up employment and hiring over 200 people.”
More businesses are enrolling in the chamber each year. The majority of new members this year have been small businesses. Members range from single entrepreneurs in startups to large employers such as General Electric. The chamber represents 1,200 businesses that together employ more than 100,000 people, said JoAnn Cueva, coordinator for the Women”™s Business Council, a program within the chamber.
The business community is thriving, Cueva said. Many of the small businesses in Danbury are looking for a “leg up” by networking and building relationships to get their names out in the community, she added. The chamber caters to that need with Business After Business networking events and workshops on topics such as career and leadership development and business negotiation tactics.
New this year, the chamber is hosting executive peer advisory groups ”“ monthly round-table meetings at which CEOs and those in upper management share advice, moderated by a facilitator involved with the Westchester Business Accelerator. The facilitator had previously been with Yahoo Inc.
