Connecticut Unemployment on the Rise

2009 has been a very long year for the state of Connecticut in terms of employment; in fact the unemployment rate as of October 2009 is 8.3 percent, 1.5 percent below the national average of 9.8 percent. As bleak as this year has been for the economy there are some signs of prosperity for the Connecticut Economy. Of the ten major employment sectors, five (in bold) have experienced employment growth from 2009 to October 2009. (Construction, Manufacturing, Trade Transportation Utilities, Information, Financial Activities, Professional & Business, Service and Health, Leisure & Hospitality, Other Services and Government). The two sectors that seem to be on steady increase in the last couple of months are Leisure and Hospitality Employment, along with Construction.

Leisure and Hospitality has been on a steady 4 month increase since August and is now employing 140,600 people, which is the most employees this sector has had in the past 5 years. The Construction sector is also enjoying success and has been on a steady increase since July. The construction sector now employs 52,400 people. However, since 2007 the Construction sector has been hit hard by unemployment. In January of 2007 there were 68,200 people employed in construction. So although jobs are slowly rising now, there is no guarantee they will stay high. Currently, manufacturing is struggling the most. Since the beginning of 2004 it has steadily declined from 197,300 to 170,700 employees. Overall, job seekers should be looking for work in the Education and Health Services sector, or Leisure and Hospitality. Although Education and Health has gone down the past two months it is up from 266,300 employees from the beginning of 2004 to 299,100 employees today. With employment in the Leisure and Hospitality sector at an all time high, these are the two bright spots of the Connecticut Economy.

See below for additional information:

"Connecticut Labor Force Data for Labor Market Areas and Towns." Connecticut Department of Labor Office of Research. 20 Nov 2009. Connecticut Department of Labor, Web. 25 Nov 2009. <http://www.ctdol.state.ct.us/lmi/laus/laus.pdf>.

“CT Employment Sectors." Labor Market Information from the Office of Research. 20 Nov 2009. Connecticut Department of Labor, Web. 25 Nov 2009. <http://www1.ctdol.state.ct.us/lmi/SecEmp.asp>.