Connecticut output improves even as jobs growth slows

After Delaware, Connecticut had the best production on a per-capita basis last year in the nation, with each resident producing $50,300 in goods and services.
It marked the first time the state has cracked the $50,000 mark, according to annual statistics published this month by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Both Connecticut and Delaware have a high concentration of finance and insurance jobs that are attracting capital, BEA analysts stated. Connecticut”™s hot real-estate market was the biggest contributor to the gains.
Every state in the nation registered gross domestic product growth save Michigan, which was hit hard by a slowdown in construction.
Idaho had the fastest-growing economy in 2006, with real GDP up 7.4 percent led by manufacturing of durable goods.
Connecticut has had the fastest growth economy in New England since 2003, at 10.6 percent, just ahead of the U.S. growth rate of 10.4 percent between 2003 and 2006.
Local employers have been squeezing more out of each employee even as they have been hiring ”“ as of May, employment statewide was up by 18,200 jobs from the year previous, although the job count dropped 1,200 from April 2007.
“This drop ”¦ wasn”™t totally unexpected,” said John Tirinzonie, an economist with the Connecticut Department of Labor. “The gain of 11,000 jobs between December and last month”™s figure was unusually high, and this loss may be in part more of a correction factor than the beginning of any downward trend.”
The housing market slowdown, coupled with a relatively mild winter that allowed builders to get a head start on this year”™s projects, contributed to a 0.9 percent slip in construction jobs between April and May, though the industry”™s jobs are up 2.2 percent from a year ago. The retail industry is the only private sector to see both its annual and monthly job totals erode.
By contrast, securities and commodities firms added 1,500 jobs in the past year.
Lower Fairfield County, which has a high concentration of such firms, added 3,200 jobs between April and May, according to estimates by the Connecticut Department of Labor that were not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. The Danbury area added 900 jobs during the same stretch.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, Connecticut”™s unemployment rate in May matched the national figure of 4.5 percent, with the state rate edging up from 4.1 percent in May 2006 and from 4.2 percent in April 2007.
Louisiana and Oklahoma were the only two states in the nation to register sharper increases in both the year-over-year and monthly unemployment rates.
During the past year, New Jersey has lowered its unemployment rate from 4.7 percent to 4.3 percent, while New York trimmed its jobless rate from 4.5 percent to 4.4 percent.