Two hundred job losses in the Norwich-New London area helped drag down the state's labor force in October as Connecticut saw a decline of 2,200 positions — the second straight monthly drop.

Andy Condon, director of research for the state Department of Labor's Office of Research, said in a statement that the job reductions could indicate "a softening of the strong growth we have seen through August of this year."

Don Klepper-Smith, director of research and chief economist for DataCore Partners LLC in New Haven, said the new numbers were "very disappointing" and indicated "we're clearly heading in the wrong direction."

"I'm genuinely concerned about our ability to generate tangible job gains over the next 12-18 months," Klepper-Smith said in a note to clients. "The state will be hard-pressed to realize tangible and meaningful Connecticut job growth on an average annual basis in 2016."

But Gov. Dannel P. Malloy preferred focusing on the state's year-over-year job numbers that indicated an uptick of about 24,000 positions. He also pointed to the tenth-of-a-point drop in the state's unemployment rate to 5.1 percent, the lowest level since March 2008.

"We have now reached our pre-recession unemployment rate, a new and important milestone," Malloy said in a statement. "While this month is comparatively flat (in job growth), we’re no doubt seeing positive signs."

The Norwich-New London area, however, has lost 300 jobs over the past year. Among the state's other major labor markets, only this region and Waterbury have seen jobs disappear in the past 12 months.

The state as a whole has recovered more than 100,000 positions since the Great Recession ended. But that is a recovery rate of less than 85 percent of the 119,000 jobs lost during that period, far below the successes seen in most other states.

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow