CT job rolls grew more in April

Connecticut's slow economic recovery continued to gain some ground in April as employers added another 3,000 jobs during the month, pushing the jobless rate down slightly to 9 percent, labor authorities said Thursday.

That represents the fourth consecutive month Connecticut added jobs to its economy, the Connecticut Department of Labor said.

Connecticut unemployment was 9.2 percent in March and 8 percent in April last year. U.S. unemployment is 9.9 percent.

Connecticut since December has added 8,900 jobs, state labor authorities said.

The state's nonfarm employment in April was 1,617,000, up from the revised March 2010 figure of 1,614,000, DOL said. On a seasonally adjusted basis, this is a decrease of 14,100 from the April 2009 total of 1,631,100 jobs.

"Despite such promising indicators, it appears we have a way to go before healthy job growth gets underway," said Salvatore DiPillo, the agency's labor statistics supervisor. "We are still faced with a shaky global financial system and high numbers of housing foreclosures, while other challenges include an unemployment rate that is higher than this time last year, as is the number of weeks it takes to find new employment.

"While these issues all present significant stumbling blocks in rebuilding our economy, the job growth we have seen since the beginning of this year is certainly a boost toward renewing employer and consumer confidence."

The largest job gains were in the professional and business sectors, which added 5,100 positions, followed by government with an increase of 1,700 jobs. This was followed by leisure and hospitality, up by 1,600 jobs and manufacturing which gained 800 positions.

Jobs in education and health services  were down during the month, and the financial services sector shed 700 positions.