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Connecticut Loses 5,200 Jobs, But Unemployment Rate Still Falls To 5.4%

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. — The unemployment rate in Connecticut fell from 5.6 percent to 5.4 percent in September — even as the state reported a loss of 5,200 jobs, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Labor.

Find a job this week in the Lewisboro/Pound Ridge area.

Find a job this week in the Lewisboro/Pound Ridge area.

Photo Credit: File

And the state itself is to blame for more than half of those lost jobs. The losses included 2,900 jobs from state government as "layoffs and retirements are finally showing up in the data," said the labor department. 

The government supersector saw a 4.1 percent decline in jobs after the state's layoffs, which were part of a budget-balancing effort. 

“Connecticut saw job losses in September for the third month in a row and our three-month average of total nonfarm jobs saw its first decline this year,” said Andy Condon, director of the Office of Research at the state Department of Labor. “However, market signs are mixed as the state’s unemployment rate continues to fall.”

Connecticut’s unemployment rate for September fell two tenths of a point to 5.4 percent, which is a tenth of a point higher than it was a year ago. The number of the state’s unemployed declined by 2,925 (-2.8 percent) in September.

Jobs in the leisure and hospitality superector also showed losses of 1,500 jobs,  or 1 percent, after healthy summer gains. 

The Department of Labor also revised its August report from 300 jobs gained to 300 positions lost.

The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk labor market area saw the largest decline in jobs in September with a loss of 1,200 jobs, or 0.3 percent.

But it remains the strongest LMA in terms of annual growth, with 6,500 new jobs, or 1.6 percent. 

Over the year, nonagricultural employment across the whole state has grown by 12,800 jobs.

Connecticut has now recovered 90,800 positions, or 76.2 percent of the 119,100 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs that were lost in the state during the March 2008 to February 2010 employment recession.

The state needs to reach the 1,713,300 seasonally adjusted job mark to enter an employment expansion. This will require 28,300 additional nonfarm jobs to be created. 

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