There is no reason to gloat or take satisfaction in the news that state labor unions have rejected the concession deal negotiated by their leaders, an outcome that now appears certain to lead to large-scale layoffs of state workers.

Anti-government believers no doubt prefer to see Gov. Dannel P. Malloy forced to cut the size of the state workforce, but it will not spur the economic rebound they predict. Instead it will make Connecticut's economic recovery more difficult. Likely cuts in aid to municipalities will also add downward pressure on the economy.

While this newspaper felt Gov. Malloy should have insisted on greater givebacks from labor, it agreed with his overall strategy of achieving savings through negotiated concessions rather than putting more people out of work. Adding thousands to the unemployment roles, crippling their buying power, will only exacerbate Connecticut's economic problems.

But that's the path the state unionized workforce has chosen, or at least a part of it. Through its collective bargaining, the state labor unions purposely made it very difficult to approve concessions. Now many of its members will pay a heavy price. When the unions finish counting, a majority of members will have agreed to the modest concessions, but the arcane weighted formula required to approve a contract adjustment means the lack of support from one large bargaining unit, AFSCME, killed the deal.

This is a major setback for Gov. Malloy. He worked the legislature hard to get a budget done on time. But it had a major flaw. It assumed $1.6 billion in savings from the labor concession deal. Now the governor is calling the legislature back into session to do something he did not want to do - cut state jobs to fill that hole. At this point Gov. Malloy expected to have the budget behind him and his attention turned to job creation.

To his credit, the governor appears ready for the difficult task ahead. In recent statements he has ruled out any further tax hikes or dipping into projected budget surpluses, which Gov. Malloy recognizes are needed to address serious pension and debt obligations.

With their misguided and selfish votes, some state employees have both assured that many of their fellow workers will be out of jobs and reinforced the stereotype of the privileged government worker unwilling to compromise.

In an earlier editorial we urged the governor, in the wake of the labor vote, to push the legislature to cut spending. The unions having rejected the opportunity to do it the reasonable way, Gov. Malloy appears ready to do it the hard way, as he must.