Conn. sees sharpest decline in unemployment since October
On the heels of a bounce-back national jobs report, Connecticut saw the sharpest decline since October in the number of people receiving unemployment assistance.
Initial claims for unemployment dropped below the 4,000 mark for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Department of Labor reported 183,000 Connecticut residents on federal unemployment programs as of the third week of May — down from more than 190,000 in mid-May for a 3.6 percent decline.
Connecticut could have a similarly good news in store next week. More than 7,500 residents came off DOL’s mainstay unemployment program the final week of May, according to preliminary data that does not include additional programs created to blunt the economic impact of last year’s economic collapse, such as the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that allows independent workers to receive aid.
In the first week that Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration dangled a $1,000 bonus for accepting a job offer, less than 500 people applied for the perk according to the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services.
Speaking Thursday on the state’s budget on the brink of completion, Lamont focused on elements to help “folks ... get back on their feet” in his words, and noted his efforts to waylay any increase to Connecticut’s taxes on capital gains that he feared could discourage private-sector investment in the state.
“We got to get this state moving again,” Lamont said. “Let’s face it — we have not been a big jobs creator compared to some of those Sunbelt states going back a generation . ... I’ve got to make sure we stay competitive and grow, because growing economy is one of the best ways to hold down taxes.”
Starting in June, workers must demonstrate they are looking actively for work each week in order to continue qualifying for unemployment compensation. The re
quirement was waived at the outset of the pandemic to ensure people had access to emergency income for basic needs.
In the Connecticut Department of Labor’s own weekly tabulation of unemployment across industries, the arts and entertainment sector had 37 percent fewer people receiving unemployment in late May
compared to three months earlier when joblessness reached its 2021 peak in Connecticut. That trailed only the construction sector’s 42 percent decline in unemployment, though numbers have yet to drop below their prior low last fall.
The U.S. economy added 559,000 jobs in May, about double the gains of April but leaving overall employment 7.6 million jobs short of the total in February 2020 just prior to mass business closures to check the spread of the virus.
In Connecticut, however, there are still far too few jobs to go around. The Conference Board counted less than 72,000 openings in April statewide on the thousands of career websites it monitors, with health care and social services tops for new openings in late May.
As of Thursday, Indeed’s jobs board listed less than 59,000 positions employers were looking to fill in Connecticut; more than 17,000 of those positions were posted in the past two weeks. But of the total
openings with accompanying pay estimates posted on Indeed, only four in 10 offer compensation at $47,000 or more on an annualized basis.
“The good news is people’s salaries are rising,” Lamont said. “There are a lot of ways we are working to make Connecticut much more affordable for the middle class.”