• State of Connecticut Labor Situation - December 2009 (.pdf, 1,993KB)

“While job losses continue to hamper the growth of Connecticut’s economy, we still see a few bright spots that indicate the state is beginning to experience some slow but positive improvement,” noted Labor Statistics Supervisor Salvatore DiPillo. “The state’s unemployment rate continues to remain below the national rate of 10 percent, and the number of initial unemployment claims decreased by more than 700 from November to December - a decline of nearly 10 percent from last year. Despite these signs, only two major sectors have shown growth in the state over the past year, and it appears significant job growth across the board is slow to arrive for Connecticut and the nation as a whole.”

In December, the one sector to add jobs - educational and health services - added 1,300. All other sectors remained unchanged or lost jobs. The biggest employment decline was found in trade, transportation and utilities, down 1,900 jobs with most of this in retail businesses. The leisure and hospitality sector lost 1,700 jobs while other services and government were down 700 and 600 jobs, respectively. The information and professional and business sectors each lost 400, followed by construction, which had the smallest job loss, with 200 jobs. The manufacturing and financial activities sectors were mostly unchanged over the month. Since the beginning of the recession in March 2008, Connecticut has lost 94,500 jobs, representing an overall employment decline of 5.5 percent.

Employment in the construction sector was down 200 from November’s number for a total of 51,300 jobs. These losses represent the second month that construction jobs have been down following three previous months of job gains. Still, December’s job loss was considerably less than those seen in the early months of 2009. The construction sector, which first began losing jobs in October 2007 - well before most other sectors - is currently down by more than 25 percent from that period.

The manufacturing sector’s employment was mostly unchanged in December, with a loss of 100 jobs. Job losses in this sector have moderated in recent months following substantial monthly losses earlier in the year. This sector, with 169,300 jobs, is down 8.5 percent from a year ago.

Employment in the trade, transportation and utilities sector was off by 1,900 in December. While wholesale trade employment was unchanged from November, retail jobs were down by 1,500 and transportation, warehousing and utilities jobs were down by 400. Employment in this sector now stands at 289,400, representing a decline of 10,900, or down by 3.6 percent from last December.

There was a loss of 1,700 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, with employment declines spread between the arts, entertainment and recreation and accommodations and food services industries. This sector has weathered the recession fairly well in Connecticut and is one of only two sectors to have added jobs over the year.

The other services sector, which includes repair and maintenance services, personal and laundry services, and religious, grantmaking, civic, and professional organizations, lost 700 jobs in December, contributing to a 1,600 over-the-year job loss. Employment in this sector now totals 61,600.

Also showing a decline in December was the government sector with 600 jobs lost. The losses were seen in federal and local governments, while state government employment was unchanged. Employment in government was down 5,400 over the year, with losses evenly divided between state and local government. The professional and business sector, which includes temporary help agencies, shed 400 jobs in December, and in fact, this sector has lost jobs in 10 of the past 12 months. With December’s employment at 185,500, this sector has lost 6.8 percent of its jobs in the past year. The information sector’s employment was also down 400, bringing these jobs to a level of 34,200. Over the year, this sector has lost 2,200 jobs, or 6.0 percent. Unchanged from November’s levels was the financial activities sector with December employment at 137,400. While employment in this sector is down by 4,000, or 2.8 percent from one year ago, losses have been relatively minor in the past few months.

The educational and health services sector, the one sector to show gains in December, added 1,300 new jobs, bringing total employment numbers to 300,500. Nearly all of the job gains in this sector were found in educational services. Employment in the educational and health services sector is now up by 1,400 from last December. Labor Market Areas: Job gains were found in just one of the six major Labor Market Areas (LMAs) between November and December, with the New Haven LMA adding 400 jobs. Hartford, the largest LMA, lost the most jobs – 3,900, while the Bridgeport-Stamford LMA shed 1,300 jobs. The Norwich-New London LMA was down by 800 jobs, the Danbury LMA 600 jobs, and the Waterbury LMA lost 300.

Hours and Earnings: The manufacturing production workweek, not seasonally adjusted, averaged 41.3 hours, down 0.4 hours from the December 2008 figure of 41.7 hours. Average hourly earnings at $23.47, not seasonally adjusted, were up $1.51 from a year ago this time when the number was $21.96. This resulted in an average weekly wage for manufacturing of $969.31, up $53.58, which is an increase of approximately 5.9 percent over the year.

As data in the Labor Situation is revised each month, we maintain only the current month's issue on our web site.