DOL: CT lost 1,500 jobs in May

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By Gregory Seay

Connecticut shed 1,500 jobs in May, particularly in retail and professional and business services, but the state’s jobless held at 3.8 percent, new state labor data shows.

Also Thursday, the state Department of Labor (DOL) revised its April estimate of a 300-job gain upward, to 500 jobs.

May’s preliminary Connecticut nonfarm job estimates from the business payroll survey administered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged the state’s overall employment at a seasonally adjusted 1.6 million.

The state’s May unemployed headcount was estimated at 71,700, seasonally adjusted, down 800 from April. Connecticut’s April jobless rate was 3.8 percent. In May 2018, it stood at 4.2 percent.

“With May’s decline of 1,500 jobs, seasonally adjusted employment growth through the first five months of the year is looking rather flat,” said DOL research director Andy Condon. “Most sectors are seeing at least some annual growth, but trade, particularly retail trade, professional & business services and other services are behind last year’s job numbers.”

Half of the state’s ten major industry supersectors gained jobs last month and four declined. The information supersector remained unchanged.

Job growth was led by leisure and hospitality with an increase of 500 jobs, or a rise of 0.3 percent, for a total of 161,300 jobs. Other leading industry gainers included the financial activities supersector, which added 300 jobs, and professional and business services, adding another 200 jobs.

The trade, transportation and utilities supersector led declines, shedding 1,400 jobs, or a 0.5 percent fall, for a total of 294,100 jobs. Construction and mining shed another 900 positions and “other services” experienced a decline of 300 jobs.

The Hartford metro area gained 2,400 jobs during the month and the New Haven area shed 200 net jobs.

Connecticut has recovered 80.8 percent, or 97,200 jobs, of the 120,300 seasonally adjusted jobs lost in the 2008-2010 Great Recession.