Wall Street’s meltdown is becoming Connecticut’s problem.
As financial giants continue to crumble, failures, mergers and government bailouts are leaving some Connecticut residents unemployed and reducing the overall number of available financial services jobs.
The statewide unemployment rate in August reached 6.5 percent, nearly 2 percentage points higher than last year, and up from the 5.8 percent unemployment rate in July.
Fairfield County is getting hit especially hard.
Located in the southwestern corner of the state, towns in this wealthy enclave have some of the largest concentrations of workers who commute to cushy jobs on Wall Street. And they will be impacted the most by its reshaping.
Bridgeport and Stamford, for example, saw their unemployment rates jump to 6 percent, up from 4.2 percent from this time last year.
“Part of this is due to the financial crisis and the layoffs that are occurring on Wall Street,” said John Tirinzonie, an economist with the state Department of Labor.
Tirinzonie said the number of jobs in Connecticut have remained stable since last year, even slightly increasing in certain sectors. That suggests that unemployment increases are coming from people who work outside the state, including in New York.
Meanwhile, Connecticut had four towns on BusinessWeek.com’s list of top 20 communities that will be hit hardest by the financial crisis. The rankings were based on the percentage of residents the town’s have in the financial services industry.
In the No. 1 spot on the list was Darien, Conn., followed by Westport (7th place), Wethersfield (10th place), and West Hartford (15th place).
Darien, a New York suburb in Fairfield County, finished ahead of Bloomington, Ill., which is home to State Farm Insurance, and Hoboken, N.J., which is across the Hudson River from Wall Street.
Twenty-seven percent of Darien’s 20,666 residents work in the financial services sector, according to BusinessWeek.com. Westport, which is also in Fairfield County, has nearly 20 percent of its 27,000 residents tied to jobs in finance and real estate.
Meanwhile 19 percent of Wethersfield’s 26,146 residents and 17 percent of West Hartford’s population of 63,782 have jobs in the financial services sector.
Tirinzonie said those seeking a new job in the financial services industry could have a tough time because of the highly competitive market they will now be headed into. Those who do find a job may not be making as much money as they used to.
Both factors will negatively impact the state in terms of tax revenue, Tirinzonie said, because people who work in Fairfield County provide a large percentage of the state income tax.
Introducing PGUAX
Phoenix Investment Partners, the asset management subsidiary of The Phoenix Cos., announced that its global utilities fund has begun trading under a new name: Phoenix Global Infrastructure Fund, PGUAX.
The company is a diversified asset management firm with $33.4 billion under management. The change reflects its broader investment strategy to invest at least 80 percent of its assets in the equity securities of infrastructure companies located in three or more countries, including U.S. companies that provide energy, utility, transportation, communication and other essential services.
“We’re enthusiastic about the fund’s new infrastructure investments and the benefits they’ll bring to shareholders,” said portfolio manager Connie Luecke, who co-manages the fund with Randle Smith at Duff & Phelps Investment Management Company, the fund’s subadviser.
“Exposure to the global infrastructure asset class can add value to both institutional and retail investors’ portfolios because of its low correlation to other asset classes, attractive risk/return characteristics, and the defensive nature of the infrastructure sector.”
Aetna Adds To Board
Aetna has expanded its board of directors to 13 members and appointed Richard J. Harrington, chairman of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, to fill the new vacancy immediately.
Prior to the acquisition of Reuters Group PLC by The Thomson Corp. in April 2008, Harrington, 61, served as president and CEO of Thomson, a business technology and integrated informations firm. He held a number of senior leadership positions within Thomson since 1982, including CEO of Thomson Newspapers and CEO of Thomson Professional Publishing.
Harrington is also a director of Xerox Corp., Milliken & Co., the Norwalk Community College Foundation and the University of Rhode Island Foundation.
Greg Bordonaro is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.
