🔒CT added 1,200 jobs in 2025 as labor force shrank, state says

Connecticut employers added a net 1,200 payroll jobs over the course of 2025, a modest gain that state labor officials said reflects slow but stable growth even as the workforce shrank and economic uncertainty mounted heading into the new year. The figures, released Tuesday by the state Department of Labor, came alongside the agency’s January 2026 labor situation report, which showed employers added an estimated 5,300 jobs that month while the state’s unemployment rate ticked up to 4.5% from a revised 4.3% in December. December’s job figures were also revised upward, from a loss of 500 positions to a gain of 400. Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo struck a cautiously optimistic tone, saying January’s gains were a positive start to 2026 but warning that employers across Connecticut and the broader U.S. face uncertainty around hiring, tariffs and energy costs in the months ahead. “As long as the national economy doesn’t decline, we can expect slow and steady growth for 2026,” she said. The state’s total payroll employment reached an all-time high of 1.72 million jobs, though officials warned that figure is expected to fluctuate. Top-growing sectors in January included transportation and warehousing, health care and social assistance, and manufacturing. Education, finance and insurance, and administrative and support services posted declines. Despite the rising unemployment rate, the DOL’s Director of Research Patrick Flaherty said there has been no corresponding surge in claims filings. The department is processing roughly 30,000 weekly unemployment claims, below pre-pandemic levels. Flaherty attributed the rise in the unemployment rate largely to new entrants to the labor market who are actively looking for work but have not yet landed jobs, a population counted as unemployed under federal definitions. “Growth has been slow and steady,” Flaherty said, adding that while it takes longer to find a job than it did during the post-pandemic hiring surge, employers are still actively recruiting. Job openings held at around 70,000. One significant data point from the annual benchmarked report: Connecticut lost roughly 11,900 people from its labor force between January 2025 and January 2026. Officials noted that federal immigration policy may have contributed to that decline, pointing out that about 20% of the state’s payroll jobs are held by workers born outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Officials also noted several factors that may have skewed January’s figures. The monthly employer survey was conducted before the wave of snow and severe cold that hit the region, and collection fell during some school vacation periods. The February labor report, due April 21, is expected to capture the effects of the harsh late-winter weather. The benchmark and January reports are typically released in March but were delayed by the federal government shutdown.