Four in 10 of Conn. jobless make less than $20,000
New unemployment wage data show the extremes of Connecticut layoffs in the first two months of the coronavirus pandemic, with just one in 10 people filing claims reporting annual income of at least $75,000 — and four in 10 making less than $20,000.
The Connecticut Department of
Labor has been updating weekly demographic details of those claiming unemployment benefits for the first time, along with those already receiving assistance prior to mid-March when Gov. Ned Lamont shuttered portions of the Connecticut economy.
Prior to Lamont’s order, people who made under $20,000 comprised less than 30 percent of total continuing claims for jobless assistance. Of those filing since whose wages have been pegged by DOL, more than 40 percent had income below that threshold, numbering more than 121,000 people in all.
DOL has left wages undefined for another 77,000 claimants, which could result in significant movement in the percentages, as the case for existing demographic data DOL has been reporting like worker age, ethnicity and industry sector.
Older, experienced workers have fared better than in past downturns in which those above age 50 came under job pressure due to higher pay and benefits they received, according to Joe Carbone, CEO of The Workplace, one of the state’s five workforce investment boards that provides career services in much of the Fairfield County area.
“If you look at the profiles of
people who were laid off in Connecticut as a result of COVID-19, it’s really quite remarkable that a substantial number of them are on the younger side,” Carbone said. “Anywhere from (age) 22 to
45 makes up 80 percent of the people who were laid off.”
The shock of the surge in initial unemployment claims as resulted in labor statistics diverging widely from expectations, including on Wednesday with ADP’s release of its monthly jobs estimates based on payroll information it gleans from
millions of U.S. companies. ADP estimated a May decline nationally of below 2.8 million jobs, less than a third of projections by some economists.
“The economic data released in this recession have been the strangest in history,” stated Chris Rupkey, an economist with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
Group in New York City, in a Wednesday note to clients assessing the ADP report. “It is hard to count skulls in the labor market accurately as the jobs lost dwarfs any other time in economic history.”