Connecticut’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in both September and October to end at 7.9 percent, the lowest it’s been since April 2009, despite a partial government shutdown, state labor officials announced.
The decline — from 8.4 percent in Oct. 2012 — came even as the number of jobs in the state fell by 4,200 over those two months. But the number of unemployed persons fell by nearly 1,400, or about 1 percent.
While the private sector added 1,000 jobs in October, government employees affected by the shutdown that ended midway through the month canceled out the gain.
“The September and October reports are sending mixed signals about Connecticut’s labor markets,” Andy Condon, director of the DOL’s Office of Research, said in a statement. “The weeks leading up to the federal government shutdown, evidently, led to increased economic uncertainty and hiring indecision across the state. On a positive note, the state’s unemployment rate has declined for two months in a row primarily driven by a reduced number of unemployed individuals.”
The shutdown delayed the state Department of Labor’s monthly jobs report, which is why it released data on both September and October today.
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