Tag: Connecticut Department of Labor

The leisure and hospitality industry saw the greatest private sector job gains.

“Work as we know it is changing,” says Garrett Moran, chair of the Governor’s Workforce Council. “We will continue to refine our online offerings in the coming months and years. The CT Back to Work initiative is a terrific start.”

“You have to be so flexible, accommodating your customers and your employees,” says Don Droppo Jr., owner, president and CEO of Curtis Packaging in Sandy Hook. “This is unprecedented for all of us, and you can either run from it or you can see it as an opportunity.”

Leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and education and health services saw the greatest losses.

More than 29,000 people filed new unemployment benefits claims last week, bringing that total to about 515,000 since the middle of March. The governor said the state Department of Labor has processed over 500,000 of those claims and paid out over $1.3 billion, including around $25 million for self-employed and gig workers.

“The task was complicated, due to a 40-year-old mainframe using a COBOL operating system,” noted state Department of Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby. “Despite these challenges, we have now processed over 340,000 of the 402,000 claim applications filed since March 13.”

The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk corridor shed 2,300 jobs and the Danbury area lost 800 positions.

The state’s number of COVID-19-related deaths grew by a dramatic 197 today, bringing the total to 868, though Gov. Ned Lamont said that was due mainly to a large batch of data just received by the Department of Health from the Office of the Medical Examiner.

The effect on Scholastic of the COVID-19 pandemic "includes significantly decreased revenue and customer counts as a result of widespread cancellation of orders across the book fairs, book clubs and scholastic education departments," according to the company's Senior Human Resources Manager Donna Millillo.

Fairfield County's coronavirus-related death toll has reached 101, Gov. Ned Lamont announced today, though he said he was trying to draw some solace from the fact that an anticipated major spike in cases has, so far, not arrived.

The furloughs "will continue indefinitely, but are intended to be temporary and last less than six months," the store says.

“We are starting to plan for our economic recovery and continue to look to book events over the next couple of years,” says Thomas Madden, Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau chair and Director of Economic Development for Stamford.

The $2.5 billion in the state’s Budget Reserve Fund (also known as the Rainy Day Fund) puts Connecticut "in pretty good shape" through at least June 30, said Gov. Ned Lamont. “Obviously, this is the rainy day,” added Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management Melissa McCaw. “We are well-positioned to weather this storm.”

Bridgeport’s Lecoq Cuisine Corp. has laid off 181 workers. “Although this action may be temporary, given the uncertainty created by this pandemic, this separation may be permanent,” according to Chief People Officer Laura Brown.

The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk corridor lost 1,000 jobs last month.