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Updated: July 3, 2024 What's Trending

CT has added 15,200 jobs in 2024; these sectors are hiring the most

Adobe Stock The educational and health services sector, which includes nurses and other care providers, has added the most jobs so far in 2024.
By Andrew Larson

The state added about 4,700 jobs in May, causing the unemployment rate to drop slightly to 4.3%, according to the state Department of Labor’s preliminary data.

It was the fifth consecutive month of job growth, with employers adding an average of 3,043 jobs per month in 2024, according to the DOL.

Since the beginning of 2024, total employment is up 15,200 in Connecticut, the DOL said. Employment rose 18,400 in 2023.

The educational and health services sector has led job growth so far in 2024, adding 8,300 jobs through the first five months of the year, DOL data shows.

The leisure and hospitality sector has been the second-largest growth sector, adding 3,600 jobs. The trade, transportation and utilities sector has contracted the most this year, down 1,300 jobs through May.

Meantime, the state’s private sector employment peaked at an all-time high of 1.48 million jobs, surpassing the previous record of 1.46 million jobs set in December 2018, the agency said in its monthly jobs report. 

Overall, Connecticut had 1.71 million jobs at the end of May, the highest number since the 2008 financial crisis.

However, Connecticut still has 9,900 fewer jobs than it did in March 2008.

Connecticut has recovered 104.3% of its pre-pandemic employment, according to the DOL.

Patrick Flaherty, the DOL’s director of research, said that seasonally adjusted employment, meaning temporary summer jobs, played a large role in overall job gains in May.

In May, the state’s labor force participation rate increased to 64.7%, just above the national rate of 62.5%, according to the DOL.

Connecticut had 90,000 jobs available in April, based on the latest data available.

The DOL also says that the average hourly wage for private industry employees was $37.70 in May, up $2.34, or 6.6%, from a year ago.

HBJ Editor Greg Bordonaro contributed to this report.

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