CT loses 400 jobs in February but unemployment remains fixed at 17-year-low

Connecticut lost 400 jobs in February while its unemployment rate remained fixed at 3.8 percent, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. 

And while that jobless rate remains Connecticut’s lowest in the past 17 years, it also comes just two weeks after labor officials revised job growth numbers sharply downward for 2018.

“February jobs saw a small decline of 400 jobs, essentially leaving Connecticut’s labor market unchanged from January” said Andy Condon, Director of the Labor Department’s Office of Research.

Connecticut now has recovered 97,100 of the 120,300 jobs it lost in the last recession — which stretched from March 2008 through January 2010, a recovery of almost 81 percent. The private sector has regained 99.6 percent of the jobs lost while the public-sector, which includes government jobs and employees at the tribal casinos in southeastern Connecticut, remains well below pre-recession levels.

Private sector employment shrank by 500 positions in February, while the public sector gained 100 jobs.

In addition to government, job gains also were recorded in four other major industry super-sectors: professional and business services; manufacturing; information; and other services.

Losses were recorded in: trade, transportation and utilities; education and health services; leisure and hospitality; and construction and mining.

The largest job losses, regionally, occurred in February in the Hartford-area labor market, which lost 2,300 positions. Losses also were recorded in the Norwich-New London-Westerly, Danbury and Waterbury markets.

The New Haven-area market saw the most gains, adding 500 new jobs, while the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk market added 300.