Another ho-hum month for jobs
Connecticut is moving sideways with a minuscule gain of 300 jobs in April, the Department of Labor reported Thursday, and a revision for March from a loss to a very slight gain of 300.
That number is statistically the same as zero in a state with 1.7 million jobs.
For the last 12 months, Connecticut has seen a gain of 11,600 jobs, or 0.7 percent, continuing a pattern in recent years of unspectacular gains, albeit positive. No sector has shown a strong move up or down except construction, up 3.3 percent in the last 12 months to 60,000 jobs, but that sector is famously volatile.
Figures are adjusted to smooth out seasonal variations, and are subject to large revisions.
The U.S. economy is humming along with a gain of 2.6 million jobs in the last year, a gain of 1.8 percent. As in Connecticut, growth would be far higher if workers were more available through increased immigration, for example, or through higher wages that would draw idle people back into the workforce.
The unemployment rate in Connecticut ticked down to 3.8 percent from 3.9 percent in April, statistically the same as the U.S. rate of 3.6 percent. That’s considered to be at full employment, when there are more job openings than people to fill them.
The upshot: Lawmakers in Hartford continue to debate ways to jumpstart jobs even as the economy approaches 10 full years of expansion. The next showdown will be over paid family and medical leave, which would take 0.5 percent of most wages, or $400 for a household making $80,000, to offer workers up to 12 weeks of paid time off.
Would that attract more workers to the state or send people packing under the weight of another tax increase? Thursday’s ho-hum jobs report will form a backdrop to a heated battle at the Capitol.