BY DIRK PERREFORT
Hearst Connecticut Media
When Antonio and Julia Perillo opened the Aranci 67 Italian restaurant in the Georgetown section of Redding this spring, they had no idea they would be helping Redding lead the way in northern Fairfield County”™s jobs growth, with the biggest addition of new positions since the Great Recession.
While Redding employers have reported a more than 18 percent growth in local jobs since the start of the recession six years ago, much of that increase came from additional employment in the food services sector as well as administrative-support industries.
Danbury-area towns have seen mixed success in regaining jobs lost during the recession, with some smaller towns reporting double-digit gains while other communities continue to struggle with losses in construction and the health care industries, according to data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, provided by the state Department of Labor.
While some employment numbers relied upon by economists are based on surveys of individual responses such as unemployment claims, the quarterly census data is composed of reports filed by the majority of employers in the U.S.
As a result, the quarterly census data can provide a snapshot of the number of jobs available in a community at a given time.
“Behind the averages lie some very interesting stories,” Nick Perna, an economic adviser with Webster Bank, said after reviewing some of the data.
Construction jobs lagging
While lower-paying food service jobs have helped add to employment rolls in Redding and other towns, construction jobs throughout the region continue to decline and burden local communities.
“In all likelihood, that’s what’s keeping the average level of wages down,” Perna said. “The slow recovery of construction jobs has been part of the problem we have in this recovery. While construction jobs normally lead a recovery, they’ve unfortunately been lagging.”
David Adams, owner of Design Builders and Remodeling in Ridgefield, said while construction work has increased, most companies are still afraid to add employees.
“Everyone is a lot more cautious than they used to be,” said Adams, who had 25 employees before the recession versus 18 today. “A lot of companies have decided to do more with what they have rather than bringing in more people.”
While jobs in the health care industry have helped municipalities like Kent and Danbury erase most, if not all, of the jobs lost during the recession, other towns like New Milford and Southbury have struggled to regain jobs and have experienced sharp declines in health care and social-assistance jobs, which include everything from hospitals to day care centers.
New Milford reportedly lost about 200 jobs during the past six years in health care, according to the data, while Danbury gained more than 1,000 positions during the same time period.
Hospital consolidation
Some have speculated the region’s wild fluctuation of health care jobs may be the result of the Western Connecticut Health Network, an organization merging Danbury, New Milford and Norwalk hospitals and their affiliates. During the past six years, state and federal aid to the region’s health care facilities has been significantly cut.
“While people talk about health care as a growth industry, that hasn’t been the case for a number of towns in our area,” Perna said. “That may very well be the result, at least in part, of all the consolidations that have been occurring.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean fewer practitioners are working, however.
Former U.S. Rep. James Maloney, CEO of the Connecticut Institute for Communities in Danbury, said in his experience, when consolidating medical facilities, reductions often occur in administrative and back-office staffs. The institute formed its own clinic for low-income families by combining several existing clinics in the Danbury region.
“That’s really where the redundancies lie,” Maloney said. “You still have to serve the same number of patients, so usually there isn’t much of a reduction in direct-service positions, but you don’t need two human resources directors.”
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury.) See newstimes.com for more from this reporter.
