Connecticut’s job-creation engine cranked out 3,200 more in August, pushing the state’s jobless rate to a fresh post-recession low, the state says.
Nonfarm employment statewide climbed last month to a seasonally adjusted 1,698,900 from a year ago, the state Department of Labor said Thursday.
August was the state’s fourth straight month of job gains, but fell below July’s estimated new-job tally of 4,100, the labor agency said.
As a result, Connecticut’s unemployment rate dipped to 5.3 percent in August – lowest since reaching 5.4 percent in May 2008 — down from 5.4 percent in July.
It was the best August job growth in more than a decade, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday.
“There is no doubt the needle is moving in the right direction,” Malloy said.
The U.S. jobless rate last month was 5.1 percent.
“Connecticut’s estimated nonfarm employment growth pace and unemployment rates have come closer in line with national averages this summer,” said state Labor Department Research Director Andy Condon. “In August, earlier school openings and the later Labor Day holiday seemed to influence industry employment, earnings, and hours worked.”
