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May 31, 2016

CT working-age population shrinking

PHOTO | National Institute for Metalworking Skills Manufacturing jobs in the U.S. have shown growth since 2010 but the workers to fill those jobs is dropping in Connecticut.
By Joe Cooper

Connecticut will see a drop in its working-age population through 2040, but it’s far from alone among Northeast and Midwest states.

According to a new Pew Trusts article, Connecticut will see a more than 5 percent drop in its prime working-age population of adults 25 to 54 from 2010 to 2040. That puts it on par with states like Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

The population of prime working-age adults, ages 25 to 54, will decline in 16 states, most of which are in the Northeast and Midwest, from 2010 to 2040, according to a Stateline analysis of projections released by the University of Virginia’s Demographics Research Group in the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, the article said.

Maine and Vermont will be the hardest hit New England states with projected population declines of more than 10 percent among working-age adults. West Virginia is expected to be equally as hard hit.

Mark Mather, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau, an international research center, said losing the skilled workforce makes states less attractive to businesses, which leads to less demand for services. “So everything feeds into itself, for a negative downward spiral,” he said.

The article also says if the projections hold true, 11 states — Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia — will see their population shrink from 2030 to 2040 after showing mostly modest gains from 2010 to 2030. It would be the first decade in U.S. history that so many states see their populations fall.

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