Connecticut’s job picture dimmed at the start of 2014, with the state losing 10,400 jobs in snowy January. Despite that, unemployment eased to 7.2 percent last month, state labor authorities say.
The state Department of Labor blamed cold and snowy winter for slowing the economy and casting a chill on job growth.
Connecticut’s unemployment rate stood at 8 percent in January 2013. February’s jobless report is due out later this month, officials said.
In December, the state hit an employment high, with a revised 1,663,500 people working in nonfarm jobs, the agency said Friday. December unemployment was a revised 7.4 percent.
But employment dropped to 1,653,100 nonfarm jobs in January, the traditional end to the temporary holiday hiring season.
Meantime, the labor agency said its annual revision of monthly job gains and losses uncovered the state actually added 21,000 more private-sector jobs than previously reported, to 53,000.
“With 53,000 private sector jobs created through the end of last year, we are experiencing one of the best periods of growth that Connecticut has seen in decades,’’ Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a statement, trumpeting the report.
State Labor Department Office of Research Director Andy Condon added:
“Newly benchmarked employment statistics reaffirm the consistent job growth in the state that brought down the unemployment rate in 2013. However, the steep decline in January payroll jobs remains a concern. If, as we suspect, January’s decline was largely due to weather conditions, we should see growth trends return in future months.”
With the revisions, Connecticut’s 12-month jobless rate in 2013 average 7.8 percent, Condon said. In 2012, the average was 8.3 percent; 8.9 percent in 2011; and 9.3 percent in 2010.
