Connecticut’s unemployment finished 2012 lower, at 8.6 percent despite losing jobs in December, state data shows.
The state Department of Labor said Thursday December joblessness was down from 8.9 percent in November.
State unemployment was 8.2 percent in December 2011, while the U.S. jobless rate was 7.7 percent, the lowest in four years.
“The state’s trend of a declining labor force continues for the sixth month in a row and was the primary factor behind the declining unemployment rate in December,” said Andy Condon, the labor agency’s research director. “With the arrival of the December preliminary jobs report it is apparent that the rate of job growth slowed considerably in the last half of the year, however, we expect the level of jobs in the state to be revised upward when the benchmark is complete in March.”
