The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Employers added 8,700 jobs in Connecticut in January, DOL estimates
Connecticut’s January unemployment rate dropped to levels not seen since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to estimates released by the state Department of Labor on Friday, putting the state on the brink of returning to its employment levels of February 2020 with any sustained hiring push at the doorstep of spring.
Employers added 8,700 jobs in Connecticut in January, according to initial DOL estimates, putting the state only 2,100 jobs short of the total in February 2020. The January gains came on the heels of a net add of 26,600 jobs over 12 months through January, putting the state within 18,000 jobs of the 1.7 million threshold Connecticut has not hit since December 2018.
The state appears to have added 5,400 more jobs last year than earlier surveys had suggested, according to Patrick Flaherty, director of research for the state Department of Labor.
Employers nationally continued to hire in February, according to a separate U.S. Department of Labor report earlier Friday, adding 311,000 jobs despite a succession of interestrate increases by the Federal Reserve. Those hikes are designed to reduce demand for loans that can exacerbate inflation by triggering more spending. But that can have a boomerang effect on jobs, with lower spending reducing the need for employers in many industries to hire to meet demand.
“The Connecticut economy is on the right trajectory, and this new data gives us reason for optimism,” said Dante Bartolomeo, DOL commissioner, in a Friday interview with CT Insider. “There are national issues that we can’t control like inflation and the war in Ukraine, but at this point in time we do not see and feel the effect of those here in Connecticut.”
While big technology companies have announced mass layoffs in the past several months, Connecticut has had relatively few mass layoffs. But Connecticut saw a slight reduction in January in the number of residents reporting they are employed, suggesting an impact on the portion of the population who hold jobs in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, or who work remotely from home otherwise in jobs that are technically based elsewhere.
Roughly 123,000 more U.S. workers lost their jobs permanently in February compared to the prior month, but the overall number remained below the levels of February 2022. New York has seen a number of mass layoffs this year, but the state has offset those actions with strong, private-sector hiring otherwise, generating a net gain of 23,600 jobs in January.
Over the first two months of this year, 4,800 Connecticut residents came off unemployment compensation to drop Connecticut’s statewide total to below 28,600 claimants, a 14 percent decline. In one major development, DOL reported that child-care centers are edging back to the employment levels from before the pandemic, giving more options for working parents to find day care for young children during working hours.
The Conference Board counted about 75,500 openings in January being advertised online by Connecticut employers, with the survey not including a number of employers that have thousands of more openings. DOL estimated Friday the true number of openings is likely hovering around 100,000 positions that could be filled tomorrow with qualified workers, if more were to return to the work force or get trained for those jobs.
“We’re working on a lot of programs — for instance, registered apprenticeship programs and pre-apprenticeship programs which happen in high school,” Bartolomeo said Friday. “Students are able to do workplace learning ... and if they so choose they are able to go into that industry after graduation.”