With net gains of 1,100 jobs and 1,500 fewer unemployment claims, Connecticut’s jobless rate fell slightly in December to 4 percent, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. Over the year, the state added 19,900 jobs, an increase of 1.2 percent.
”The December jobs report ends the year on a high note,” said Andy Condon, the DOL’s research director. “Preliminary numbers indicate that we saw job growth in almost every major industry sector in the state’s labor market.
“Unemployment fell five-tenths of a point since December 2017 to 4 percent. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual benchmark revisions to our jobs numbers will be completed in March and we have seen significant downward revisions in recent years.”
The U.S. jobless rate was 3.9 percent, up two-tenths of a point from November.
While across the public and private sectors, Connecticut gained 1,100 jobs in December it was the private sector that drove that growth. Private-sector employment in the state grew by 1,600 jobs in December, adding 23,500 over the year for a total 1,478,000. Government employment, which includes the state’s two tribal casinos, lost 500 jobs in December and 3,600 over the year, ending 2018 with 227,500 jobs.
Overall, Connecticut has recovered 111,300 of the 119,100 jobs lost in the Great Recession of 2008. The private sector has recovered all its lost jobs and has grown. Private sector employment is at 117.7 percent, compared to the start of the recession, which began in March 2008 and ended in February 2010.
Average weekly pay in Connecticut was $1,141.67, up $81.55 from a year ago. That represents a 7.7 percent increase, three times the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
Paul Craig Roberts, esteemed economist, tells us that the unemployment figures over the last 8 years or so have been totally bogus. Many of these jobs are temporary, short hours, no bennies, etc.Yet, the MSM insists unemployment is approaching the zero asymptote. Go figure.Many of these jobs are mediocre, to say the least.
Still many fewer CT jobs than before the ’08 crash.
While this looks like good news on the surface, the jobs that are growing are mostly those that are PT, without benefits or temporary. I’m happy to see that increase in the average wage earned going up, but that could be that the executives and corporate owners are making more, not the average middle class working person. I’m happy knowing this increase must have been to the private sector since other than a “check” state employees for the most part, did not get a raise (political appointees, mangers, doctors and coaches are the exceptions of course).