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November 18, 2021

CT added 5,300 jobs in Oct., unemployment rate drops to 6.4%

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By Zachary Vasile

Connecticut added 5,300 jobs in October, the fifth consecutive month of job gains as the state’s gradual economic bounceback from the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be stabilizing.

According to the state Department of Labor, Connecticut’s official unemployment rate dropped from 6.8% in September to 6.4% in October. September’s job growth, originally estimated at 4,700 new positions, was revised up to 6,500.

The education, health services, hospitality, financial, trade and professional services industries all added jobs last month, while the construction and manufacturing sectors, along with government employment, lost ground.

“Each quarter job growth has accelerated throughout the year, a pattern we expect to continue into the fourth quarter of 2021,” said Patrick Flaherty, director of the Labor Department’s Office of Research. “Also, while there’s no doubt that the pandemic severely damaged Connecticut businesses and our workforce, market watchers like to see these kinds of broad job gains that reach across a variety of industry sectors — it’s indicative of a fundamentally healthy economy. It’s going to take time to recover completely.”

Connecticut has now regained 72.8% of the 292,400 jobs lost during the COVID-19 shutdowns of March and April 2020.

Connecticut continues to trail the national unemployment rate, which fell to 4.6% in October.

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