WETHERSFIELD, Conn. — State officials announced Thursday that Connecticut employers added 14,000 jobs in July and August, as the number of people on unemployment continues its downward trend. The state has also recovered 68.9% of the positions lost at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020.
Data provided by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the state added 11,100 jobs in July – a figure revised up from 9,400 jobs, making it the strongest month record for 2021.
In addition, an estimated 3,300 jobs were added in August, making it the eighth consecutive month of job growth for Connecticut.
Meanwhile, the state’s unemployment rate continued its downward trend and dropped slightly to an estimated 7.2% in August from 7.3% in July.
“These numbers are good and going in the right direction, especially the July job data that set another high bar for job growth,” Interim Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo said in a statement. “In large part, these positive economic trends are because Connecticut’s leadership and residents are taking COVID-19 seriously.”
He continued: “Vaccines and other public health precautions have a direct benefit to our economy—COVID variants like Delta have an opportunity to push the economy back on its heels, so it’s critical that we all work together to keep that from happening.”
The private sector created about 5,500 jobs in August, however, the government supersector decreased by 2,200 jobs in the same time period. The government supersector includes all federal, state and local employment, including public education and Native American casino employment located on trial reservation land.
“The pandemic recession behaves differently than other recessions. During the Great Recession, we had a steady decline in economic activity—jobs were lost over months and took years to recover,” economist Patrick Flaherty, director of the DTCOL Office of Research, said in a statement. “During the pandemic, the economy just dropped off a cliff—jobs were gone overnight, but we are showing faster recovery growth as well. Many workers are taking advantage of the current market to find new jobs; the quit rate is at a record high. People are voluntarily leaving their jobs for other opportunities, something we didn’t see during the Great Recession recovery.”
Nationwide, applications for jobless aid rose from a pandemic low to 332,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Jobless claims, which generally track the pace of layoffs, have fallen steadily for two months as many employers, struggling to fill jobs, have held onto their workers. Two weeks ago, jobless claims reached their lowest level since March 2020.
The increase was small and may be temporary. The four-week average of jobless claims, which smooths out fluctuations in the weekly data, dropped for the fifth straight week to just below 336,000, the lowest since the pandemic began.
Doug Stewart is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dstewart@fox61.com.
----
Have a story idea or something on your mind you want to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at newstips@fox61.com.
---
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET FOX61 NEWS
Download the FOX61 News APP
iTunes: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Stream Live on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching FOX61.
Steam Live on FIRE TV: Search ‘FOX61’ and click ‘Get’ to download.
