Weight of jobless claims swings to the Gold Coast

After casino worker layoffs hit eastern Connecticut hard in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, the pendulum began to swing to the Gold Coast as the calendar flipped to May, as many businesses wait for the state to lift restrictions starting May 20.

Greenwich, Westport, Easton and Redding ranked among the 10 Connecticut towns where last week’s initial claims for unemployment were highest as a percentage of total claims filed since mid-March. That’s when layoffs spiked after Gov. Ned Lamont declared a public health emergency.

The Connecticut Department of Labor has been running an updated tally of initial jobless claims by state residents on a town-by-town basis, as well as by industry and other demographics. While detailed information is pending on more than 100,000 claims filed since the second week of April, cities and towns were already seeing declining numbers of initial claims at that point.

Through last week, Bridgeport has had the most residents lose their jobs — at nearly 13,000 people — followed by Hartford and Stamford with well over 10,000 people in each city seeking unemployment compensation.

But comparatively affluent towns are creeping up the table as calculated by the percentage of claims filed over three weeks after April 19. Redding trailed only Sharon statewide for new filings over that period as a percentage of total claims, with the town among the dozen in Connecticut with the highest median household incomes.

Wilton, the third most affluent town in Connecticut by household income, was also among the 10 most active for unemployment claims over the three weeks spanning the end of April and early May.

Greenwich, Westport, New Canaan, Easton, Woodbridge and Madison also ranked in the top 25 of municipalities with jobless claims weighted toward the most recent three-week stretch analyzed by DOL, with Trumbull and Fairfield just outside that group.

While jobs in hospitality and retail have dominated the Connecticut layoffs, upper-income tiers have not been spared, with more than 2,500 workers in the finance and insurance industry filing claims for unemployment assistance, and 1,700 people described by DOL as being in management roles.

Many companies are cutting compensation as well for staff, including Information Services Group, a Stamford firm that consults itself on strategies to reduce costs such as transitioning to outsourced services or cloud computing.

“We did have some furloughs — not a lot — and we did take some compensation actions,” CEO Michael Connors said Monday on a conference call with investment analysts. “Look, I think it’s a bit of a crap shoot here, but ... we look at it by industry segment, and who is coming back at what kind of anticipated speed.

“Certainly, the travel, the retail, the hospitality areas are going to be the slowest to come back. We do not anticipate them coming back at anything close to normal during 2020.”