Pratt & Whitney closures to proceed
Despite $100 million in incentives dangled by the state, United Technologies Corp. is pushing ahead with plans to close Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine plants in Cheshire and East Hartford.
The closures come at the cost of 1,000 jobs.
“The company has made every effort and explored all options to preserve this work ”“ including assigning extra value to options that kept jobs in Connecticut,” said Tom Mayes, vice president of Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines & Global Services, in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, the reality we are facing is a dramatic and sustained drop in volume, a shifting customer base and a declining aerospace market.”
The Department of Labor certified 185 workers laid off from call-center and claims-processing jobs at Health Net of the Northeast Inc.”™s Shelton office to apply for federal Trade Adjustment Assistance, allowing them to access expanded benefits like health insurance assistance and relocation stipends.
Health Net Inc. is in the process of selling its Northeast operations to UnitedHealth Group Inc., which owns Trumbull-based Oxford Health Plans Inc.
Connecticut”™s year-over-year job losses swelled to 70,800 in August, as a big gain in educational services was offset by steep losses in tourism, finance and professional services.
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Fairfield County lost 500 jobs between July and August, according to estimates by the Connecticut Department of Labor, and the region”™s job count is down by 15,900 positions since August 2008.
The unemployment rate in coastal Fairfield County and the Danbury metropolitan area stayed steady between July and August at 7.6 percent and 7.1 percent respectively, even as Connecticut”™s rose from 7.8 percent to 8.1 percent.
Connecticut is receiving $11 million in federal stimulus funding intended to help create green jobs and implement energy efficiency and conservation programs, with municipalities receiving at least $25,000.
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The funding includes $1.2 million for Stamford, under the Department of Energy”™s Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants that will distribute $354 million nationally.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell and 21 other governors asked Congress to extend unemployment benefits for unemployed Connecticut workers whose benefits are set to expire, including subsidies for them to continue receiving COBRA health-insurance benefits on their former employers”™ plans.
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Connecticut”™s unemployment rate is currently 8.1 percent, but several economists have said the state”™s unemployment rate may not peak until the second half of 2010.
“We can provide a vital lifeline to Connecticut workers who continue to search for new jobs,” Rell said, in a prepared statement. “The federal stimulus has sharply reduced the cost of continuing health benefits for Connecticut workers who lose their jobs.”
The Workplace Inc., a work-force investment board in Bridgeport, received a $200,000 contract from the U.S. Department of Labor to lead the development of apprenticeship training for youth and young adults with disabilities.
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The Workplace is working with Bridgeport-based Career Resources Inc., the Disability Resource Center of Fairfield County Inc. and the Connecticut Department of Social Services, among other organizations.