The unemployment rate dropped one tenth of one percent to 5.7 percent.
Private employers in Connecticut added 3,000 jobs in July, but those healthy numbers were somewhat offset by more than a thousand layoffs of government workers. Overall the net job gain in the month was 1,700.
The numbers for the previous month of June were revised downward from 7,900 job gains to 5,800. The unemployment rate dropped one tenth of one percent to 5.7 percent.
Governor Dannel Malloy hailed the private sector job growth as an important step forward. “The needle is moving in the right direction," Malloy said in a statement. "We are no doubt going to keep working to build on our growth.”
But the Connecticut Business and Industry Association said Connecticut is one of only two New England state that have still to recover all of their job losses from the great recession.
“While it’s good news that we’re still adding jobs, our recovery’s lack of strength when compared to a neighboring state like Massachusetts is important," said CBIA Chief Economist Peter Gioia.
