By adding 7,000 jobs in June, Connecticut has recovered 84 percent, or 100,000, of the 119,100 seasonally adjusted jobs lost in the March 2008-February 2010 recession, according to the state Department of Labor.
Connecticut”™s private sector has recovered 102 percent of jobs lost during the recession ”“ the first net expansion of private sector jobs in 88 months.
The state counted a preliminary estimate of 1,694,200 people employed in nonfarm jobs last month, a 15,400 improvement over June 2016.
Connecticut employers have added over 15,400 jobs since June 2016, for a 0.9 percent growth rate, while the U.S. has an average growth rate of 1.6 percent and New England a 1.4 percent growth rate over the same period.
Nevertheless, Connecticut’s unemployment rate rose once more to 5 percent in June from 4.9 percent in May. The state’s jobless rate was 5.8 percent in June 2016.
The department also revised downward by 1,100 jobs its May nonagriculture employment gain, to 5,600 net jobs gained.
“It”™s important not to derail this momentum,” said Connecticut Business & Industry Association economist Pete Gioia. “Now the legislature must deliver a fiscally sound state budget that relies on long-term structural spending reforms and rejects broad-based tax increases.”
