Connecticut lost 4,000 jobs in the second quarter, and more than half the losses occurred in the Norwich-New London area, according to a report released today by the University of Connecticut.

The fall issue of UConn's quarterly economic report called The Connecticut Economy showed the region lost 2,200 jobs between the first and second quarters. But the region is expected to regain 1,600 of these jobs by the middle of next year, the report said.

The ups and downs of the regional and state economies make it difficult to forecast labor gains, the report noted, but a slow recovery is expected, something under 12,000 jobs statewide for the next year.

"At the current rate it will take nearly six more years to recover all the jobs lost in the last recession," Steven P. Lanza, executive editor of The Connecticut Economy, said in the report, which was written before the Federal Reserve Board decided to pump money into the economy by purchasing $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities.

The report noted that the second-quarter "jobs blip" may have been exacerbated by unseasonably warm weather in the first quarter that spurred early hiring in areas such as retail and construction. The second quarter suffered partly because hiring in seasonal jobs got started earlier than usual, Lanza said.