An increasing number of Connecticut residents are looking to distant horizons with the possibility of pointing their moving vans in those far-flung directions.
According to the latest InformCT Consumer Confidence Survey conducted by the Connecticut Economic Research Center covering the second quarter of this year, 47% of respondents said it was likely they would be moving out of the state within the next five years. This percentage share ties the fourth quarter of 2018 level as the highest in the survey”™s history.
When asked if they agreed with the statement “Connecticut is a good place to live and raise a family,” only 44% of respondents offered an affirmative response, down from 47% in the previous quarter that a declining number of people viewed Connecticut in such a negative light.
Still, some glimmers of optimism shined through in the survey: 73% of respondents believed Connecticut”™s business conditions are better or the same as six months ago, slightly up from the previous quarter, while the 16% share who felt jobs are very hard to get in Connecticut was the lowest percentage since the quarterly survey began in 2015.
When asked if their financial well-being was better today than six months ago, 35% of respondents said yes and 23% said no ”“ an improvement from the first-quarter results when 33% said they were worse off and 26% said they were better off. As for the next six months, 43% said they expected to be better off while 16% expected they will be worse off financially ”“ in the first quarter, that comparison was 37% to 18%.
“Connecticut residents can best be described as uneasy,” said Alissa DeJonge, vice president of research at the Connecticut Economic Research Center. “They”™re feeling better in some ways, but not in others. They have a definite preference of how the state should help fill jobs that may be coming, and their own personal financial situation is looking up. But they”™re less sure of the state”™s economic prospects and whether they”™ll stick around, even as they say the job picture has brightened.”
The online survey was conducted in late June and consisted of input from 505 state residents and has a margin of error of 4%.
