Job losses worry economists

Connecticut’s economy lost 2,000 jobs in September, officials with the state Department of Labor said Thursday, the third month in a row that employment has declined.

Making matters worse, the number of jobs lost in August was revised from 3,900 to 4,200. With that revision, the state has lost 7,200 jobs since July.

“September’s decline of 2,000 seasonally adjusted payroll jobs caps a slow third quarter for Connecticut job growth,” said Andy

Condon, director of the state Labor Department’s Office of Research. Even with September’s job losses, Connecticut’s unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percent to 4.6 percent, Condon said.

The employment sectors with the biggest losses in September were construction and mining, which saw a decline of 1,400 jobs, and the leisure and hospitality industry, which lost 1,200.

Four industries saw employment increases, led by professional and business services, which added

1,100 jobs, followed by a gain of 900 in the financial activities sector.

Pete Gioia, an economist with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said the continued loss of jobs in the state is disturbing.

“Connecticut’s economy is impacted by the instability at the capitol,” Gioia said in a statement. “We started this year with great momentum, even seeing as much as 11,000-plus job growth year-over-year. But over the last three months, it’s eroded dramatically.”

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, was even more pessimistic in his assessment of the state’s latest employment numbers.

“We have to be seriously concerned about the prospect of recession starting to emerge in Connecticut,” Klepper-Smith said. “The pronounced lack of fiscal discipline at the state and local level now gives incentive for expanding businesses, both inside and outside of Connecticut, to look elsewhere. My concern is that this negativity will continue to feed on itself until meaningful changes that address the structural nature of these deficits over the next several years are dealt with.”

The New Haven area was Connecticut’s lone bright spot in terms of employment gains, adding 1,200 jobs in September. It was the only labor market area in the state that added jobs last month.