State’s Job Growth: S-l-o-w-l-y Does It

They’re not big numbers, but nonetheless, they’re positive. Connecticut added another 500 jobs in June, marking four straight months of job growth.
And the state now has seen growth for five of the year’s first six months, according to the Department of Labor’s monthly employment report.
“What we’re seeing  right now is sustainable job growth, but at a slow rate,” said CBIA economist Pete Gioia.
Though Connecticut’s unemployment rate inched up slightly in the last month to 8.1%, Gioia observed, it is down four-tenths of a percentage point over last year.
“Overall, this is another positive jobs report,” he said.
Weather report
The labor department saw weather as a determining factor for the latest employment numbers.
“The greatly extended public school year due to storm disruptions seemed to impact typical seasonal job patterns in education and may have some influence on summer hiring patterns going forward,” said research director Andy Condon.
“The second wettest June on record in the state may have dampened job growth in some sectors as well.”
Connecticut has added 10,600 jobs since last June. The state has recovered just 58,700, or 48.4%, of the 121,000 jobs lost during the 2008-2010 recession.
Employment sectors
Only three of the 10 major employment sectors added jobs last month, led by the government sector with 3,700 new positions.
Leisure and hospitality added 1,700 jobs while financial activities gained 400 positions.
Construction and mining shed the most jobs of any sector, shrinking by 1,800 in June, or 3.2%. For the year, the sector still leads all sectors with 2,900 new jobs.
Other services lost 1,100 positions, followed by trade, transportation, and utilities (-800), education and health services (-700), professional and business services (-400), manufacturing (-300), and information (-200).
Labor markets
Four of the six labor market areas posted gains for the month, led by the 3,000 new jobs in Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk.
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford gained 2,700 new positions,  Norwich-New London added 1,300 jobs, and Waterbury netted 400 jobs.
New Haven shed 2,500 jobs while Danbury declined by 100..