Recession: Connecticut Loses More Jobs

CBIA economist Pete Gioia says the recession’s impact on Connecticut was far broader than previously thought, with the state shedding an additional 16,000 jobs during the economic downturn.
New figures released late yesterday by the state Department of Labor showed that 119,000 people lost their jobs between March 2008 and January 2010.
Gioia noted some positive news in the revised figures, saying “the recession was harder hitting on jobs than we thought, but the recovery is proceeeding along a little faster than we thought.”
Connecticut gained 22,600 jobs year over year. The state lost 2,700 jobs in January and the unemployment rate remains at nine percent, or 170,000 people. 
Connecticut’s state government added 800 jobs during 2010 and now employs a record 67,900 people, according to the labor department report. Local government (which includes tribal governments and casinos) lost 1,900 jobs over the same period.
Nonetheless, long-term private sector job growth in Connecticut is stagnant. In the two decades since 1990, the state added a net 15,900 jobs, an increase of less than one percent — third-worst in the nation.
And, as the record number of business leaders who attended yesterday’s Business Day at the State Capitol heard, there are numerous bills moving through the legislature that negatively impact the state’s economic recovery.