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March 8, 2024

‘Solid growth and sustained economic progress’: CT employers add nearly 47K jobs over last 2 years

By Andrew Larson

Connecticut employers added a total of 18,400 jobs in 2023 after gaining 28,500 jobs in 2022, according to the state Department of Labor’s annual benchmark report for 2023 released Friday.

The state showed solid job growth and sustained economic progress, the report says, adding 46,900 jobs over the last two years.

Connecticut is now at a 16-year high with 1.7 million payroll jobs. The private sector, which has 1.47 million payroll jobs, is 102.9% recovered from the pandemic, the report states.

“Today’s report is further evidence of the strong approach Connecticut took to pandemic recovery,” said Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo. “We have stable and sustained job growth, an increasing labor force participation rate, and we have, so far, weathered the impacts of COVID variants, supply chain disruptions, inflation and the possibility of a recession. 

Bartolomeo said hiring remains a challenge and that workforce development is “critical for future growth and stability.”

2024 started on a positive note, with employers adding an estimated 7,400 jobs in January. Employers currently have roughly 94,000 job openings in the state.

According to the report, from January 2024 to June 2023, employers added an average of 4,000 jobs per month. From July to December, jobs declined by an average of 1,000 per month; however, the six-month decline was reversed with the large addition in January.

Despite some fluctuations, 2023 was a solid year for Connecticut’s economy, according to Patrick Flaherty, the state Department of Labor’s director of research.

“Employers posted seven months of growth and 18,400 jobs, making 2022 and 2023 the strongest two-year period in 25 years,” Flaherty said. “The past two years may also be harbingers of a new trend of strong early-year growth followed by weaker end-of-year numbers. January seems to be in that pattern with strong job numbers that more than mitigated 2023 job losses.”

Six of the 10 major industry supersectors showed employment gains in January, with the education and health sectors experiencing high growth. The pre-pandemic trend of retail losing jobs as warehousing gains jobs has continued.

Also in January, the government sector gained 800 jobs and is up 3,600 jobs since last January.

The state’s unemployment rate has been increasing and now stands at 4.4%. The rise indicates that more workers are entering the labor market, not that workers are losing their jobs, according to the report.

The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.7%.

Connecticut has about 33,000 unemployment filers. The state’s labor force participation rate is at 64.4% – above the national average of 62.5%.

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