CT adds historic 73K jobs in June as COVID-19 recovery continues

Photo | Department of Labor The state Department of Labor's headquarters in Wethersfield.

Write a Comment

By Joe Cooper

Connecticut employers added a record amount of jobs in June after the state recorded historic losses during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to state labor officials.

The state Department of Labor (DOL) on Thursday said employers added 73,300 net jobs last month for a total of 1,509,900 seasonally adjusted jobs. For the year, however, nonagricultural employment is still down by 172,000, or 10.3%, seasonally adjusted jobs.

DOL on Thursday also revised May’s estimated job gain of 25,800 upward by 2,600 jobs. Officials say the change is considered “statistically significant.”

“Connecticut saw the largest single month gain in jobs on record in June,” said Andy Condon, who leads DOL’s Office of Research. “However, this gain has to be viewed from the perspective of the unprecedented job losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

June’s employment report aired Thursday as DOL is nearly ready to debut its newly minted call center aimed at improving communications for hundreds of thousands of workers left jobless during the coronavirus outbreak. DOL Commissioner Kurt Westby and Deputy Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo are expected to make an announcement on the contact center Thursday at 1:45 p.m. via telephone press conference.

In June, DOL said eight of the 10 major industry supersectors added jobs as private sector employment recovered 68,200 jobs and the government sector grew by 5,100 jobs.

The largest job gains were recorded in the leisure and hospitality (21,900 jobs added; 26.6% increase); trade, transportation and utilities (19,100 jobs added; 7.7% increase); and education and healthcare (16,300 jobs added; 5.4% increase) industries.

Other job gainers included other services (6,800 jobs added), construction and mining (2,800 jobs added), manufacturing (1,100 jobs added), and professional and business services (600 jobs added).

The financial activities sector shed 400 jobs, and the information sector was unchanged.

The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk region led gains with 17,300 new jobs, followed by the Hartford region, which added 12,900 net jobs. The New Haven region added 12,200 jobs, the Norwich-New London-Westerly, R.I., region added 11,600 positions, the Danbury region added 4,600 jobs, and the Waterbury region picked up 2,500 jobs.