Despite fears about a potential recession, Connecticut continued to adds jobs during the month of July.
The state added 6,500 jobs last month, lowering its unemployment rate to 3.7%, according to the state Department of Labor.
The national unemployment rate is 3.5%.
Labor officials also said they revised June’s job gains upward by 1,300 positions to 3,000 new jobs.
The private sector added 2,600 jobs in July across a wide range of industries, while the government sector added 3,900 jobs, according to DOL.
Despite the growth, Connecticut still has only recovered 86.1% 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 88.3% recovered from the April 2020 COVID employment trough.
And Connecticut’s labor market still lags behind national trends.
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. U.S. payrolls surged by 528,000 to meet and just surpass the February 2020 level of 152.5 million jobs.
Connecticut has steadily added jobs over the last two and a half years, but residents’ participation in the labor force has waned in the face of the pandemic. Today’s labor force in the state — that is, people who are either working or looking for work — is 51,600 smaller than it was in February of 2020.
The sectors that gained jobs included:
- Government: +3,900, 1.7%, 227,700
- Construction and Mining: +1,500, 2.5%, 61,200
- Trade, Transportation & Utilities: +800, 0.3%, 297,600
- Manufacturing: +700, 0.4%, 159,700
- Professional and Business Services: +500, 0.2%, 219,000
- Educational and Health Services: +400, 0.1%, 337,500
The sectors that lost jobs included:
- Leisure and Hospitality: -600, -0.4%, 147,500
- Other Services: -400, -0.7%, 59,900
- Information: -200, -0.7%, 30,000
- Financial Activities: -100, -0.1%, 118,700
A CT Mirror report was used in this story.
