DOL: CT adds 1,100 jobs in Dec.; jobless rate at 4%

PHOTO | Contributed A Pratt & Whitney employee works on one of the East Hartford company's jet engines.

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By Joe Cooper

Connecticut employers added 1,100 jobs in December, slightly lowering the state’s jobless rate to 4 percent, the state labor department reported Thursday.

The state now has more than 1.7 million seasonally adjusted jobs as Connecticut experienced job growth in every major industry sector in 2018, said Andy Condon, DOL’s director of research.

Also Thursday, DOL revised its 500-job decrease in November to a gain of 1,000 over the month. That lowers the state’s latest projected number of unemployed residents to 76,200.

Connecticut’s 2018 employment data will be officially finalized in March by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has made “significant downward revisions in recent years,” DOL said.

In December, six of Connecticut’s top industry supersectors added jobs over the month and four declined.

Construction and mining led job growth with 2,100 net new jobs, representing a 3.2 percent increase. Trailing were education and health services with 1,100 new jobs; leisure and hospitality gained 500 positions; and trade, transportation and utilities added 400 jobs.

Three supersectors shed jobs last month, including professional and business services (down 1,800 jobs) and government (500 jobs).

Connecticut has recovered about 93.5 percent, or 111,300 jobs, of the 119,100 jobs lost during the Great Recession from March 2008 to Feb. 2010.

The state’s job recovery pace trails most other states that have regained over 100 percent of their jobs lost during the nation’s last recession.