State labor officials breathed a small sigh of relief after the most recent jobs report showed Connecticut gained 8,600 jobs in 2012, rather than losing 100 jobs as suggested by initial estimates.
The increase puts Connecticut”™s job growth more in line with national trends but experts say the state still has a long way to go in its recovery. Less than half of all the jobs lost during the recession have been recovered.
“We are not seeing enough growth to supply jobs to sufficiently drive the unemployment rate down,” said Andy Condon, research director for the state Department of Labor (DOL). “Unemployment is still too high for anybody”™s acceptance.”
Still, Connecticut”™s economy is making slow progress. In January, 1,644,440 Connecticut residents were employed.
Including 4,700 jobs that were added in January, the state”™s employment is at its highest since the recovery began. Since January 2012, the state has added 7,900 jobs.
The unemployment rate for January was estimated at 8.1 percent in Connecticut and 7.9 percent nationally.
Every year the state DOL revises its initial employment estimates, known as benchmarking. This process involves a comparison of the DOL”™s preliminary employment estimates, which are based off of U.S. Census data, against state unemployment insurance tax records, for which the sample size is greater and considered significantly more accurate.
Unemployment at the end of the year was originally estimated at 8.6 percent, but has since been revised to 8.2 percent. Additionally, the unemployment rate was never as high as 9 percent in July or as low as 7.7 percent last spring, as previously reported. Instead, the rate fluctuated between 8.1 percent and 8.6 percent throughout the year.
Chris Bruhl, CEO of the Business Council of Fairfield County, said he believes the stagnant unemployment rate is an indicator of structural problems within the state government.
Economic conditions are improving but he said the unemployment rate hasn”™t decreased because the jobs that are open require higher skill sets, which the unemployed don”™t have.
“Even as economic growth continues and openings are created, these individuals won”™t get the job because they don”™t have the skills,” Bruhl said.
To make further progress, Bruhl said the state would need to continue working on its higher education strategies and workforce retraining.
Based on the revised numbers, nearly 121,000 seasonally-adjusted jobs were lost in Connecticut between March 2008 and February 2010. Since then, about 43.4 percent of those, or 52,600 jobs, have been recovered. Previously the number of jobs lost during the recession was estimated at 117,500.
Fairfield County continued to lead the state in low-unemployment rates in 2012, despite little change in its labor market. The Stamford-Bridgeport labor market area unemployment rate was estimated at 8 percent and Danbury”™s labor market unemployment rate was estimated at 7.1 percent. Meanwhile, in eastern Connecticut, the Willimantic-Danielson labor market area unemployment rate was 10.3 percent. In the Hartford market, where roughly 9,500 jobs were added in 2012, the unemployment rate remains 8.7 percent.
Statewide, the leisure and hospitality industry added the most jobs during the year with 3,100 new positions added. Professional and business services added 1,600 jobs and education and health services added 1,500 jobs. Conversely, the largest losses came from the construction industry cutting 2,500 jobs and the information industry losing 2,200 jobs in 2012.
In January, the professional and business services sector added 2,900 new jobs, more than any other sector, followed by the hospitality sector with 1,500 new jobs. Education and health services lost 500 jobs during the month and information firms lost 300.
