The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Despite progress, new Conn. jobless claims pouring in
Employers eased only half the number of Connecticut residents off unemployment in May compared to the volume of jobs they jettisoned the previous month, with new jobless claims continuing to pour in during June at a clip above that of the Great Recession a decade ago.
In final figures published Monday, the Connecticut Department of Labor reported a 12 percent decline in the number of people receiving unemployment benefits in May as the state began a staged reopening of many businesses extending through June.
With Florida, Texas and California ratcheting back their own reopening schedules after spikes in coronavirus hospitalizations, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday he is considering pushing back Connecticut’s third stage of recovery if national trends do not improve. Lamont last week imposed a 14-day quarantine on visitors from several states where coronavirus case trends are worsening, then expanded the list to 16 states on Tuesday.
“Really important for our whole reopening was to make sure we had plenty of capacity in our hospitals in case there was another surge, the likes of which we are seeing in a number of those southern states,” Lamont said Monday afternoon. “I said early on in this pandemic you hope for the best but we plan for the worst . ... There’s a very narrow margin for error.”
But Connecticut and other states face spiraling consequences for any prolonged spell of joblessness with cascading effects on tax revenue and demands for social services. Connecticut entered June with just under 270,000 residents getting jobless benefits for an insured unemployment rate of 15.8 percent of the state’s workforce.
DOL reported that nearly 15,000 more people having filed initial claims since, with the count incomplete as the department continues processing claims and likely to be offset by some people returning to work as businesses resume operations.
After online ads for Connecticut jobs increased four successive weeks through mid-June, The Conference Board reported a decline last week driven by the health and social services sector.
Self-employed workers bounced back the quickest in May, with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic
Security Act allowing them to seek benefits despite not paying into the unemployment insurance system. Nearly 40 percent fewer independent contractors and solo business owners were receiving unemployment at the end of May compared to the start of the month, or about 6,300 people in all.
The construction sector has also been rehiring in force, with more than 3,300 workers coming off unemployment for a 24 percent improvement. But retail and food services have moved the state numbers the most, with the two sectors combining to put more than 12,200 people back to work in May on a net basis, though offset by at least 2,500 more filing new claims for benefits and with that number likely to balloon further as DOL catches up on its backlog.