1,400 jobs lost in August

The Fairfield County area appeared to lose 1,400 jobs in August, according to estimates by the Connecticut Department of Labor, as businesses continue to exercise caution in taking on additional spending.

Connecticut lost jobs again in August, according to the state Department of Labor, mostly due to ongoing layoffs among temporary workers hired since spring by the U.S. Census Bureau. The private sector again experienced a small jobs gain, DOL added, but not enough to offset declines in the government sector that raised the unemployment rate to 9.1 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from July.

In a recent poll by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, respondents were generally pessimistic with respect to the near-term outlook for the Connecticut economy over the next 12 months, with just 7 percent saying the state”™s economy would be good a year from now.

“We still have a long road ahead to recovery, but numerous forecasters believe more positive conditions are ahead for 2011,” said Peter Gioia, CBIA vice president and economist, in a written statement.

Despite the estimated job losses in Fairfield County, the area”™s unemployment rate as tracked by DOL dipped by a percentage point, to 8.6 percent in lower Fairfield County and 7.8 percent in the Danbury area. The discrepancy was likely the result of differing models used by DOL to estimate state and local unemployment. The unemployment rate also dropped slightly in Westchester County, N.Y., to 7 percent, while New York City”™s stayed steady between July and August at 9.6 percent.

Varying economic measures continue to portray an economy that has yet to gather momentum ”“ while average weekly earnings and hours worked were up in August, so too were average weekly claims for jobless benefits, which jumped to their highest level since September 2009. Still, those initial claims receded somewhat the first week of September, and both New York and New Jersey had among the nation”™s sharpest drops in weekly unemployment claims at that point, with the states citing fewer layoffs in the construction, trade and transportation industries.

“Connecticut”™s path to recovery took some detours between July and August with additional job losses, more initial claims for unemployment insurance and a higher jobless rate,” said Salvatore DiPillo, Connecticut”™s DOL labor statistics supervisor, in a written statement. “Still, taking a look over the year, Connecticut”™s private sector employees are working more hours, initial unemployment claims are down, and the state has added 4,300 jobs in the private sector.”

The U.S. Department of Labor reported mass layoffs dropped somewhat in August, with eight separate actions involving 880 workers, down from 13 mass layoffs the month before affecting about 975 people. The past few months, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. announced the pending closure of five A&P supermarkets in Connecticut, none of them in Fairfield County where the company has five stores. AT&T Inc. is cutting 150 jobs statewide as well.

Education was the fastest growing sector in August, adding 1,800 jobs statewide for a 3 percent gain. On the flip side, business support services flopped 1.2 percent, ranging from administrative support to waste hauling.

Still, after losing nearly 14 percent of its jobs between the beginning of 2008 and the end of 2009, the professional and business services sector has made gains almost every month since the start of the year. Employees of temporary staffing agencies are counted in that sector, a closely watched bellwether in the recovery.

Financial services, another important component of the Fairfield County economy, gained an estimated 900 jobs statewide in August, but employment in the sector is still off 2.1 percent from a year ago.