State Sheds Jobs Amid Confidence, Policy Concerns

Connecticut’s unemployment rate climbed back over 9% in March, with the state’s labor markets reporting a loss of 6,000 jobs.
Those losses erased the jobs added in February, a one-step forward, one-step back trend that highlights continuing concerns surrounding the state’s economic recovery.
CBIA economist Pete Gioia called the March numbers “very disappointing to say the least.” 
Gioia said that while Connecticut was still up some 21,000 jobs year-over-year, the state was not keeping pace with the rest of the country.
“On the national level, we had a pretty good jobs month,” he said. “But obviously Connecticut is not fully participating in this, and that’s a particular concern.
“Some preliminary results from our own CBIA surveys show there’s some confidence issues in the business community and those may be impacted by the various problems with oil producing countries and the ramp up in the price of oil. It may be due to issues in Japan and their economy, which is a trading partner of the state. 
“And it may just be due to concerns over public policy issues in Connecticut and what’s the outlook going to be like for business competitiveness at the end of the legislative session.”
Connecticut’s unemployment rate now stands at 9.1%, above the national average of 8.8%. 
“It certainly shows that Connecticut has some work to do in order to bring people back to work,” Gioia said. “We still have a situation of close to 100,000 people still without work.”