The state Department of Labor reported Thursday a net loss of 1,500 jobs in May, the fifth consecutive month of job losses in Connecticut. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8 percent.
The monthly jobs report was released as Gov. Ned Lamont tried to celebrate a bit of good news: Plans by Amazon to begin hiring next month for 1,800 jobs at a fulfillment center expected to open this summer in North Haven.
“Amazon’s relationship with Connecticut continues to grow as the company is seeing the value of our state as an emerging hub of its northeast operations,” Lamont said. The fulfillment center will be Amazon’s fourth facility in the state.
The DOL says the job losses are not statistically significant at one-tenth of one percent, but Pete Gioia, an economic adviser at the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, noted Connecticut was the only New England state with losses over the first five months.
Connecticut now has recovered 80.8 percent of the 120,300 seasonally adjusted jobs lost in the Great Recession of 2008. The job recovery is in its 111th month and the state needs 23,100 net new jobs to reach an overall nonfarm employment expansion.
The private sector has recovered 100 percent of the jobs lost in the recession.
The jobs report is based on a business payroll survey administered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Could it be that CT continues to be anti-business? Can it be that the smartest graduates are leaving the state to better job future states. Why is Texas drawing companies to its state. It is not exactly the most liberal state but many California and CT companies have and do move to Texas? Seniors continue to move out of this state as the state and local taxes continue to grow. I drove around Eastern CT yesterday and found not one road we turned down without a for sale sign.
Sanctuary state and continue rising cost and taxes are forcing people out of this state.
Gov. Lamont is allegedly a businessman, yet improving the business climate in Connecticut ranks low on his list of priorities.
Gov. Lamont is allegedly a businessman, yet improving the business climate in Connecticut ranks low on his list of priorities.
Well said. CT has spending, expense and cost of living issues. There are compelling reasons to live here just not enough of them. And certainly not enough to start or expend a business.
Re-read the article, perhaps. It states 100% of PRIVATE-sector jobs lost during the recession have been recovered. Therefor, the remaining “unrecovered” jobs had to have been in the PUBLIC sector. Do we REALLY want to “recover” those public sector jobs? THINK about that…
Casino employees are counted in the government total. And slot win has been dropping.
The prior Governor boasted that executive branch employment dropped by 10% during his terms. I suspect much of that decline resulted from privatizing services to non-profits. (The employees of the providers have complained about low pay, and the cost of improved pay will be borne by the state.)
The government sector is complicated.
Let’s keep electing the same folks and expect different results…
One of the enduring mysteries of Connecticut politics is why the exact same people who have delivered these failures keep getting elected.
One of the enduring mysteries of Connecticut politics is why the exact same people who have delivered these failures keep getting elected.
Because the unions and cities control the vote and as more and more companies, their employees and other private sector residents depart, their majority will only increase.
Only problem is they will have run out of other people’s money.
It may have to do with focusing on our cities and giving them ‘perks’ (like the Hartford bailout) while the surrounding suburbs and towns are asked to open their wallets. Power in numbers. And to add insult to injury the mayor of Bridgeport is a convicted felon who was re-elected after leaving prison to his previous office…unbelievable!
Where do elected Democrats usually come from? Would their electorates call them failures?
Here we are- 11 years post- 2008 and we’re still over 20,000 jobs down in Connecticut from that point . I credit the most excellent tax and spend policies from our one party brain trust in Hartford. Clearly, we need to elect more progressives to tax the evil rich and businesses. Tolls should also help stimulate the economy and would allow the legislature to divert more transportation funds into the general fund.
The remaining lost jobs were lost primarily from the PUBLIC sector, NOT the private sector. Makes a BIG difference!
While the Amazon facility is some good news… It is also OLD news as it was a deal put together years ago… If you think about it Amazon needed to be sited between NY and Boston and probably would have done this without incentives…
Keep in mind they will receive 25 million in tax payer monies and millions more in local tax exemptions…
While adding 1500 jobs (maybe) the previous usage of the facility (P&W) had 15000 jobs there.
We will see a lot more layoffs in the small business sectors due to inflexibility in the Family Leave, Minimum Wage Acts and Higher Taxes for small LLC’s. Not one Democrat could answer how many might be laid off due to SMBs downsizing to absorb these new operating costs. Let’s hope the larger companies will continue absorb them.
Real unemployment levels in Connecticut are actually far higher than 3.8%. It is closer to 9-10% when you factor in people gaming the system with illegal disability claims, those that have stopped looking for work because they are unskilled or unmotivated and the number of unnecessary layers of management in state agencies that should be laid off to find work in the private sector as we cant afford them anymore.
The budget has very little pro-growth economic policy except for more workforce training but that will not matter much if the businesses leave. Pratt just announced a new $45 million investment in Florida a couple of days after UTC said they are staying here. Maybe they stay while business is booming but it seems they are positioning themselves for lower overhaul work when recession hits (and we are long overdue).
Flat jobs growth so far this year suggests our decade long stagnant economy/employment will continue for quite some time. Unless Gov. Lamont discontinues the “tax and spend” policies to fund the Budget Deficit that put us here in the first place. Gov. Lamont has been in office long enough for major business to observe his policies.
What is the average salary of the private sector job now compared to 5, 10 & 15 years ago?
Total nonfarm employment has dropped every month this year. Sorry for the confusion.
Here’s a disturbing real life story… My brothers have run a mid sized site work company for almost 50 years… They have about 30 full-time employees during the busy summer months.
They were forced to lay off ALL but their core machine operators at the start of June to reduce overhead costs. This has never happened in the summer in the company’s history. They own the majority of their equipment outright and have a tight hold in expenses… Cash flow from lower paying jobs is just very constricted right now.
This is a scary “canary in the mine” warning!
Not sure what you mean by OTHER shops… there ARE jobs out there but the guys who have a high debt overhead are under cutting the bid process just to stay above water. (example) – For a turf field job in Avon, the winning Bid was 975,000 less then the next lowest bid of 5 bids… all the others were comparable. How does a company do a bid job for a million less then what appears to be the jobs market value??? The answer… you do that just to keep your head above water.
Now you understand what’s going on out there!
Did anyone expect that continuing “tax and spend” policies would have actually boosted CT’s flagging employment under our new Governor ? Or reduce the Exodus that a recent Bloomsberg News article cited as the most pronounced in the nation.