Dole deadline nears
Connecticut continues to fare better than its Northeast neighbors in employment, but that fact could pose problems for those who have lacked work for more than a year, and who are now near exhausting their federal unemployment benefits.
The Connecticut Department of Labor will not learn until mid-August whether Connecticut”™s unemployment rate ”“ which stayed flat between May and June at 8 percent ”“ will be sufficiently high to trigger a seven-week extension in benefits for job seekers who have received unemployment checks over the past 72 weeks, and who entered their current 13-week extension in April.
Under the U.S. Department of Labor”™s “second-tier program,” Connecticut”™s ability to tap federal extensions could end if the state”™s unemployment rate falls. Some 35 states have triggered extended benefits, with New Hampshire the lone state in the Northeast not to have done so.
If the program is not extended in Connecticut, the only recourses for beneficiaries will be to generate income in some capacity, or access community services like the United Way of Connecticut”™s 2-1-1 program that links up unemployed residents with local aid organizations. Gov. M. Jodi Rell has not stated whether the state could tap funding from other sources to help residents make ends meet until they find work.
Fairfield County”™s job count dropped by 900 jobs in June, according to fresh estimates from the Connecticut Department of Labor modeled on data from the U.S. Department of Labor and employer surveys.
Lower Fairfield County”™s unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in June, while the Danbury area”™s was 7 percent, both figures up 0.2 percent from May.
The U.S. unemployment rate increased by one-tenth of a point to 9.5 percent. Rhode Island”™s 12.4 percent unemployment was the highest in the Northeast and second highest nationally after Michigan at 15.2 percent. New York had an 8.7 percent unemployment rate, while New Jersey reached 9.2 percent, with both states increasing 0.4 percent.
With unemployment up 2.5 percent from a year ago, Connecticut has had the smallest addition to the jobless rolls of any state in the Northeast during the past year. Still, the recession has exacted a serious toll, with more than 70,000 jobs having evaporated since March 2008 when the clock on the recession began ticking.
“While we have yet to see any meaningful job gains, in comparison with the nation we”™ve had fewer job losses since the onset of the recession, as well as in the past year and over the past month,” said Salvatore DiPillo, Connecticut”™s labor statistics supervisor, in a prepared statement.
Statewide, Connecticut lost 4,800 jobs, with the business-services sector the hardest hit with a loss of 1,800 in all. Despite the arrival of stimulus dollars, the state lost 1,700 jobs in the construction industry, while manufacturers downsized by 700 jobs total.
The information sector gained 500 jobs.
In a separate report, Manufacturers”™ News Inc. reported that Connecticut lost more than 200 companies and 11,000 jobs from its industrial production base, the steepest decline in a dozen years the Evanston, Ill.-based company has been tracking the state”™s manufacturing industry.
“The state”™s educated work force and strong exports should help lay the groundwork for recovery,” said Tom Dubin, president of Manufacturers”™ News, in a prepared statement