State’s job numbers dip in February

February’s employment data put a damper on the state’s robust economic performance in January.

Connecticut’s economy lost 1,600 jobs in February and the unemployment rate edged upward by 0.2 percent, the state Department of Labor said Thursday.

February’s employment data put a damper on the state’s economic performance in January. The Labor Department originally reported that Connecticut’s economy had added 5,700 jobs that month, but on Thursday, officials with the agency another 800 jobs to that total.

Andy Condon, director of the Labor Department’s Office of Research, said some of the jobs lost in February may have been the result of bad weather during the week in which the data was collected.

“While the unemployment rate moved up to 4.7 percent, labor force also grew, indicating potential workers seeing opportunity in a low unemployment rate environment,” Condon said in a statement.

Private sector employment declined in February, with the biggest decline coming from the leisure and hospitality industry, which had 3,200 fewer jobs. The sector with the biggest employment gains was education and health services, which added 3,100 workers.

The New Haven area added 1,700 jobs last month, which was best performance among any of the state’s six Labor Market areas.

Economists were split in their interpretation of February’s employment numbers.

Pete Gioia, an economist with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said the swing from January’s job gains to February’s employment losses shows the volatility of the state’s economy at this current juncture.

“January got 2017 off to a strong and encouraging start, while February numbers slipped, we’re still ahead for the year and need to create positive momentum,” Gioia said. The year-overyear growth for the state was a net 2,100 new jobs, he said.

Gioia said the reason for the unemployment rate increase was a growing labor force.

“Year over year, we’ve added 10,200 people to the labor force,” he said. “So we have more people looking for work.”

Gioia noted that neighboring Massachusetts added 10,100 jobs last month, evidence that “when it comes to jobs and that must be a top priority for lawmakers moving forward.”

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, took a more pessimistic view of February’s employment data.

“The Connecticut economy is now only adding roughly 1,000 jobs per month on average, suggesting full job recovery may not materialize until sometime in 2019,” Klepper-Smith said. “It makes me think that the current Connecticut economic recovery is clearly becoming more tenuous. If you think state finances are difficult now in early 2017 when we’re seeing very modest job gains ... then what will they look like in the next national downturn given our pressing fiscal situation?”