CONNECTICUT ECONOMY LAGS REGION, U.S. IN 2018
Connecticut mustered a meager 1 percent gain in economic output last year, according to federal estimates published Wednesday morning, less than half the gain of regional rivals Massachusetts and New York.
Despite Connecticut closing out 2018 trailing only Vermont for fourth-quarter growth in the Northeast, the state lagged both the region and most of the nation for the full 12 months of the year.
Mississippi matched Connecticut’s 1 percent gain in gross domestic product last year, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, with Rhode Island and Delaware among only a handful of states to see smaller GDP growth; and Alaska the lone state to see its economy shrink last year.
The BEA study ranked Washington with the nation’s best economy in 2018, with GDP up 5.7 percent from the year before. Massachusetts led the Northeast with a 2.7 percent increase in GDP, with Florida tops in the East with a 3.5 percent gain.
“The good news is we posted a gain for the year, as opposed to a loss — we were down in each of the previous two years,” said Don Klepper-Smith, chief economist with DataCore Partners. “But ranking 44th in the country — it’s not only (about) where we’ve been, but how we have been doing relative to competing states . ... Our top priority in Connecticut has not been to maximize our economic growth.”
GDP encompasses both products and services, with Connecticut generating the most momentum in information services, manufacturing and real estate; against slight declines in construction and leisure.
While Connecticut’s March unemployment rate of 3.9 percent was only slightly above that of the United States as a whole, the state has added just 7,400 jobs in the intervening year according to
“The good news is we posted a gain for the year, as opposed to a loss — we were down in each of the previous two years. But ranking 44th in the country — it’s not only (about) where we’ve been, but how we have been doing relative to competing states . ... Our top priority in Connecticut has not been to maximize our economic growth.”
Don Klepper-Smith, chief economist with DataCore Partners
estimates published in mid-April by the state Department of Labor.
Gov. Ned Lamont is in the final leg of negotiating his first budget with the Connecticut General Assembly, with Lamont having pledged to put the state on a “debt diet” that could have a ripple effect for the construction industry and others as projects get tabled and others see further squeezing of state dollars. The governor’s economic lieutenant David Lehman has yet to issue a detailed vision for kindling job growth in Connecticut, in his new job as commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Lamont is backing legislative efforts to increase Connecticut’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and require employers to offer paid family leave, with many businesses in opposition.
“This is the right time to do it,” Lamont said last month in Hartford. “I’m looking businesses in the eye and and saying, ‘I think this is in the best interest not just (for) your workplace, but your workforce and the state of Connecticut.’ ”