For the fourth month in a row, Connecticut’s economy has seen a significant loss of jobs. The state shed 7,200 jobs in October.
The monthly loss previous announced for September was revised upward from 5,200 to 6,600.
Meanwhile, the state’s jobless rate, which is calculated on a separate household survey, ticked downward to 5.1 percent.
"Connecticut’s two monthly measures of labor market health continue to send mixed signals," said Andy Condon at the Connecticut Department of Labor. "Payroll job counts have declined for four consecutive months, indicating a significant slowing of recent job growth trends. However, the residential employment survey and model continue to show increasing employment, decreasing unemployment, and a significant drop in the unemployment rate. We will have to await further data to see which direction our labor markets are headed."
Peter Gioia of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association called the report depressing.
"There's nothing that you can sugarcoat, when we're down to only 3,000 job year-over-year added in Connecticut," he said. "And it shows that we have, with four months of decline, a real serious problem."
Economist Don Klepper Smith had a similarly sober assessment. "Our worst-case job scenario seems to be unfolding at the worst possible time when the domestic economy is also showing signs of weakness," he said in a research note to clients.
Connecticut has recovered only about 69 percent of the jobs it lost during the great recession.
