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Connecticut Unemployment Spikes To 9.1 Percent As 6,000 Jobs Are Lost

Janice Podsada

April 19, 2011

Connecticut lost 6,000 jobs last month, reversing February's job gains and pushing the state's unemployment rate up slightly to 9.1 percent from 9 percent in February, according to the state's monthly Department of Labor report issued Monday.

The number of employed workers in the state dropped to 1,617,800 last month from 1,623,800 in February, sending the unemployment rate upward one-tenth of one percent, the report said.

The state has gained 21,100 jobs in the past 12 months on a seasonally adjusted basis.

"We lost 6,000 jobs, exactly the same number of jobs we added in February — and they came out of the same industries in which they were added," said Salvatore DiPillo, the Labor Department's labor statistics supervisor.

The construction industry and the professional and business services sectors were the biggest losers, The construction sector added 2,000 jobs in February, but then lost 1,600 job last month.

"We saw an atypical increase in employment in construction jobs in January and February," DiPillo said. "Part of that could be the improving economy, but we also saw a lot of structural damage from snow and winter weather."

The state's professional and business services sector also see-sawed between gains and losses since the beginning of the year..

"In the professional and business services, we added 3,600 jobs in January, and another 3,500 jobs in February, but then the sector lost 3,700 jobs last month. "A lot of the increase was in employment agencies and temporary jobs, but the overall trend is still upward," he said.

Month to month variations in the data are to be expected. Job totals are based on a monthly survey of a sample of employers and are adjusted to eliminate seasonal variations. The state's estimated unemployment rate, on the other hand, is based on a separate household survey, "With this in mind, a number of other indicators do point to an improved Connecticut economy over this past year — fewer new claims for unemployment, fewer unemployed people and job growth overall, and a longer private sector workweek," DiPillo.

The U.S. economy gained 216,000 jobs last month, and the national jobless rate dropped to 8.8 percent in March from 8.9 percent in February.