Despite concerns about a recession, Connecticut added 6,200 jobs in November, shrinking the state’s unemployment rate to 4.2% from 4.3% in October, according to the state Department of Labor.
The national unemployment rate is 3.7%.
However, labor officials offered a few caveats to what appears to be a positive labor report. First, DOL said it revised October’s 500 job gains downward to a loss of 1,600 positions.
Second, the November jobs number showed an outsized gain in the government sector, which added 2,900 positions in the month. Part of that gain was due to the timing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ survey period, officials said. The survey week ran through Election Day and includes poll workers who are on municipal payrolls for a single day, officials said.
The private sector added 3,300 jobs in November across a wide range of industries.
“Economic recoveries are uneven — some months are great, others less so,” said DOL Director of Research Patrick Flaherty. “For Connecticut, November is right in the middle. Job growth was solid, the unemployment rate is low and stable, but employers are still challenged by a smaller labor force and that’s showing in the data. Retail Trade dropped in October and November, likely due to difficulty hiring rather than weakness in the sector. While the underlying economy is strong, in Connecticut and across the country the labor force is smaller than it was pre-pandemic.”
So far this year, Connecticut’s labor force has expanded by 45,000 workers. The state’s workforce participation rate is 64.3%, 2.2% higher than the national average. Connecticut employers reported 114,000 job openings at the end of August.
The state has added 37,000 jobs so far in 2022.
Despite the growth, Connecticut still has only recovered 90.9% of the 289,400 jobs lost during March and April 2020, when the pandemic temporarily shut down significant parts of the state’s economy. The private sector is 93.2% recovered from the April 2020 COVID employment trough.
Nationally, July of this year marked the full recovery of all jobs lost during the pandemic, nearly two and a half years after it began.
In November, seven private industry supersectors generated employment gains, while two declined.
The sectors that gained jobs included:
- Professional and Business Services +2,300, 1.1%, 220,500
- Construction and Mining +500, 0.8%, 64,200
- Educational and Health Services +500, 0.1%, 341,800
- Leisure and Hospitality +300, 0.2%, 50,400
- Information +200, 0.6%, 31,200
- Other Services +200, 0.3%, 60,500
- Manufacturing +100, 0.1%, 161,000
The sectors that lost jobs included:
- Trade, Transportation & Utilities -600, -0.2%, 297,500
- Financial Activities -200, -0.2%, 117,100
