The New Haven region added 2,300 jobs in April, even as Connecticut entered its second consecutive month of job declines, state Department of Labor figures show.
New Haven led the state as one of only two Connecticut labor markets to see job increases last month, the labor department said Thursday.
The Norwich-New London region saw a slight uptick of 200 jobs, while the Hartford, Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Danbury and Waterbury regions all shed positions.
Connecticut lost 1,400 jobs for April, all but 200 in the private sector. But job growth was still pacing ahead of last year, and the state’s unemployment rate held steady at 4.5 percent, according to the report. Figures are seasonally adjusted.
Andy Condon, director of the labor department’s Office of Research, pointed to increases in the manufacturing sector, noting employment in the sector is now up 2.8 percent over the year.
“If this pattern holds, the sector will have overcome a decades-long trend of declining employment,” he said in a statement.
Leisure and hospitality saw the most growth, adding 800 jobs. The biggest loss, at 1,400 jobs, was in trade, transportation and utilities, one of the seven out of 10 industry subsectors that lost jobs in April.
Peter Gioia, economist with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, called the increase in manufacturing a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing report.
He said Connecticut has recovered only 78 percent of the jobs lost in the recession, far behind neighboring Massachusetts and the rest of the nation.
“We still need to really concentrate on the economy as job number one,” said Gioia.
Natalie Missakian can be reached at news@newhavenbiz.com
