For once, the intonation of “cut” in Connecticut won”™t have workers expecting a pink slip.
Far from Fairfield County and its easy access to New York City-based entertainment talent, the state transferred 20 acres of land in South Windsor outside Hartford for a film lot that could employ more than 100 people on a permanent basis, along with some 1,500 production jobs depending on demand and 500 construction jobs.
Connecticut Studios L.L.C. has $65 million in funding to build eight stages and supporting offices, without specifying the source of its financing or prospective pipeline of projects. The company is a joint venture between Pacifica Ventures L.L.C. and Halden Acquisition Group.
While Connecticut Studios would be able to take advantage of a 30 percent tax credit for film, TV and digital media production, it would lack easy access to New York industry professionals, some of whom have union contracts that place limits on how far they must travel for work. That fact has made Stamford and lower Fairfield County a draw for both film work and TV productions such as “The Jerry Springer Show.”
In Connecticut, the arts and entertainment scene has kept pace with the health-care sector for job growth on a year-over-year basis, according to the latest estimates by the Connecticut Department of Labor, with the two industries increasing jobs 4 percent in the past year.
Connecticut”™s unemployment rate rose from 8.1 percent in August to 8.4 percent in September, while the U.S unemployment rate climbed a basis point to 9.8 percent.
After Fairfield County”™s employment rose slightly in August, it fell back off by an estimated 3,300 jobs in September, constituting half of Connecticut”™s job losses for the month.
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The area has 18,200 fewer jobs than it had in September 2008, when the collapse of Lehman Holdings Inc. sparked the credit crisis and deepened the recession whose origins began with homeowners unable to afford rising interest rates on mortgages they took on.
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Employment in the business services sector ”“ which includes the temporary help agencies which can be a bellwether of an expansion ”“ was down 1.5 percent between August and September, and is off 8.7 percent from a year ago.
The financial industry suffered milder losses with a 0.4 percent decline from August, and down just 3.4 percent from its reported levels a year ago following the Wall Street collapse.
“Connecticut saw greater job losses in September than in recent months and unemployment continued to rise to a level not seen here in nearly 33 years,” Salvatore DiPillo, a statistician with the state Labor Department, said in a statement. “However, there is a bright spot with construction adding 1,200 jobs ”“ the largest monthly gain in nearly two years of job losses ”“ while the leisure and hospitality sector also added employment and is holding up fairly well in the course of this recession.”
Ironically, another bright spot was the state”™s unemployment rate remaining above 8 percent a third consecutive month, qualifying those whose federal unemployment benefits are about to expire to receive another seven weeks of pay, allowing them to receive a maximum of 79 weeks.
The state is currently receiving more than $150 million in employment benefits monthly. Average weekly initial claims for jobless benefits dropped from more than 7,100 claims in August to under 6,800 claims in September.
