State employee layoffs began to take their toll on Connecticut’s job market in September even as the unemployment rate improved Thursday.
The Department of Labor reported that Connecticut lost 5,200 jobs last month, including 2,900 from state government. The department also revised its August report from 300 jobs gained to 300 positions lost.
Still, Connecticut’s jobless rate fell from 5.6 to 5.4 percent. That’s because, despite the job losses, the state’s labor force – which reflects both the employed as well as those seeking work – rose by almost 2,000 people. The unemployment rate is a ratio based in part on the size of the labor force.
“Connecticut saw job losses in September for the third month in a row, and our three-month average of total non-farm jobs saw its first decline this year,” said Andy Condon, director of the labor department’s Office of Research. “However, market signs are mixed as the state’s unemployment rate continues to fall.”
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration and the Judicial Branch combined have ordered more than 1,050 layoffs since mid-April, with about 80 percent of those job cuts coming in the Executive Branch.
Those reductions were part of a plan Malloy and the legislature embraced this spring to balance the 2016-17 state budget without tax increases...
Read more at:
http://ctmirror.org/2016/10/20/ct-lost-5200-jobs-last-month-as-state-layoffs-took-a-toll/
