The state’s unemployment rate ticked down two-tenths of a point to 7.4 percent in December, even as 3,900 jobs were lost, the State Department of Labor announced Monday.
The losses, which were almost all from the private sector, wiped out a reported gain of 3,800 jobs for November.
“Declines in the number of unemployed residents largely were the result of employment rather than individuals leaving the labor force,” Andy Condon, the labor department’s research office director, said in a statement.
Though businesses reported in one survey that they employed 3,900 fewer people during the month, the results of a separate survey of households revealed that the ranks of unemployed declined by a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent, or 3,769.
For 2013, Connecticut added 11,500 nonfarm jobs, lowering its unemployment rate from 8.2 percent to 7.4 percent. Over the same period in 2012, the state added 8,600 jobs.
