After sluggish 2016, state's job outlook improved in January
Connecticut added 5,700 jobs in January, though the unemployment rate for the month ticked up one-tenth of a percentage point over the previous month to 4.5 percent, the state Department of Labor reported Friday.
For 2016, the state’s job loss, listed at 2,000 in December, was revised to 200 jobs lost.
“The annual benchmark revision process indicates we saw fairly strong job growth in the first quarter of 2016, followed by a sharp decline in the second quarter,” Andy Condon, director of the department’s Office of Research, said in a statement. “Third quarter job growth was modest while the fourth quarter was slightly down, ending the year essentially flat. January jobs were up sharply, giving us a good start on the New Year.”
December’s job loss, originally estimated at 1,700, was revised to a 700-job loss.
The Connecticut Business and Industry Association, a trade group that tracks the state's economy, called the 2016 numbers “hugely disappointing,” adding that the January figures “offer hope.”
“The news for January is quite positive and mirrors at long last what we’ve been seeing on the federal level,” Pete Gioia, an economist with the CBIA, said in a statement.
Through January, Gioia said, Connecticut has recovered 75 percent of the jobs lost during the 2008-10 recession, the slowest growth of any New England state. Gioia noted that Connecticut was the only New England state to not add jobs in 2016. Massachusetts added 56,000 jobs, or 1.6 percent, while New Hampshire saw 1.8 percent growth.
Massachusetts has recovered more than 300 percent of the jobs it lost in the recession, leading all New England states.
Gioia said that early last year, forecasters predicted Connecticut would add a minimum of 12,000 jobs in 2016.
“This is hugely disappointing,” he said of the state’s 200-job loss last year. “This shows that we still have a critical problem in the economy in terms of job creation. Part of that is meeting the demand for jobs that go begging and part of that is just getting the economy moving again."
“Policymakers at the Capitol should do everything they can to encourage companies to grow, expand, and add jobs here in Connecticut,” he said.
Don Klepper-Smith, chief economist for DataCore Partners of Durham, characterized the January numbers as representing “a bounce-back of sorts from the labor market sluggishness in 2016." He said they were "a bit above expectations given the national gains of 238,000 jobs in January and 235,000 jobs in February.”
“Heading into 2017, we still face significant fiscal challenges to our state's economy, and further significant job gains will be increasingly difficult to come by,” Klepper-Smith said.
Five of Connecticut’s six Labor Market Areas posted job gains in January, including the Norwich-New London-Westerly area, which added 100 jobs. The New Haven area lost some 3,000 jobs.
Among economy sectors, leisure & hospitality had the biggest job gain, filling an additional 3,100 positions.
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