Connecticut employers added 2,800 jobs in August, but the state’s jobless rate was the same as in July — 3.6 percent, state labor data shows.
Nonfarm employment statewide totaled 1,697,200 jobs seasonally adjusted vs. the July count, which the state Labor Department said Thursday was revised upward from a job loss to a 1,600-job gain.
A year ago, Connecticut’s jobless rate stood at 4 percent.
The nation’s August unemployment rate was 3.7 percent.
“We saw gains in six of the ten major industry sectors we measure,’’ said Andy Condon, who directs the labor agency’s Office of Research. “In addition, the labor force grew for the first time in many months.”
Economist Pete Gioia, an adviser to the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, the leading business lobby, hailed Thursday’s jobs report as “welcome news.”
“The August jobs report for Connecticut was a welcome change,” Gioia said, adding the state has now recovered 83 percent of all jobs lost during the 2008-2010 recession.
“If this pace of job recovery continues, we will get to full recovery by early 2020,” he said.
