Bank executive: More men need to return to work
NEW HAVEN — The chief investment officer for People’s United Bank said Thursday that despite some possible turbulence, the trajectory of the Connecticut economy, particularly the New Haven area, is still headed upward.
“The eds and meds economy are going to continue to draw people to the area, particularly since the pandemic has shown they don’t need to work in New York or Boston five days a week,” John Traynor, who is also an executive vice president with the Bridgeport-based bank, said Thursday after delivering his 2022 economic outlook for the Greater New Haven
Chamber of Commerce at the New Haven Lawn Club.
But for the education component of the economy to really thrive, he said, every effort needs to be made to draw men back to work. Fewer men between the ages of 25 and 54 are working now than at any time since 1960, according to Traynor.
“It’s going to require a lot of new skills training,” he said.
Jonathan Wharton, an associate dean in the graduate political science program at Southern Connecticut State University, said enrollment at the New Haven school has declined by about 27 percent over the past eight years. School officials have been told that enrollment is expected to continue declining through the end of the decade, according to Wharton.
“It’s a big issue, not just for us, but for every other school in Connecticut.” he said.
Traynor said worker productivity in Connecticut’s economy continues to grow. But he said for the state to return to its robust pre-pandemic levels, private-sector employers will need to be willing to share more of their profits with workers in the form of higher wages.
“It’s a delicate balance,” Traynor said of allowing wages to grow without having them increase at
such a rapid rate that it becomes a drag on the economy. “But I think in
the coming year, you’re going to see more sharing by those who control capital investment and those who work for them.”
Shirley Wayne Washington, business/community liaison and work base learning coordinator for the New Haven Job Corps, said the integrity of work being done by those she has helped suffers if they need to work multiple jobs.
Washington said some candidates are not being selected because they don’t meet all of the expectations set by employers.
“They (employers) are missing out on a lot of talented people just because the applicants don’t fulfill every single qualification,” she said.