The state of Connecticut added fewer than half the jobs it initially thought in 2015. Adjusted numbers released Friday by the Department of Labor show the state added 12,200 jobs in 2015, and not the 26,900 jobs initially reported.
“The revised figure is more in line with the observed growth in 2013 and 2014,” Andy Condon, director of the Office of Research, said.
The Department of Labor reconciles the numbers from the previous year and releases the information in March, along with information from January 2016.
In January 2016, the labor department said the state added 900 jobs in five of the 10 industry sectors, four sectors declined, and the information sector remained unchanged.
Connecticut’s private sector added just 100 jobs this January, but has now added 11,000 positions over the year.
“While the numbers demonstrate progress — with the private sector growing over 11,000 jobs over the year — these numbers are also emblematic of our new economic reality,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a statement. “We have been positioning the state to support long-term growth to meet our new reality as we work to make changes that will lead to even greater gains in both total job growth and overall wages. I won’t be satisfied until everyone who wants a job has one.”
Connecticut has now recovered 86,700 positions, or 72.8 percent of the 119,100 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs that were lost during the recession. The state needs to add 32,400 nonfarm jobs to reach expansion.
“Yes, we’re growing but we’re growing at perhaps a slower pace that we anticipated or hoped for,” Connecticut Business and Industry Association Economist Pete Gioia said.
The state’s private sector has recovered employment at a faster pace, recouping 96,100, or 86 percent, of the 111,700 private sector positions that were lost during the last downturn. The state’s government supersector, which includes Indian casino employment on federally-recognized reservations, has continued to lose employment throughout the recovery. That sector has lost about 9,400 jobs.
Don Klepper-Smith, an economist with DataCore Partners, said the newly adjusted job numbers mean the state is no longer on track for a full job recovery in 2016.
The new data reflects a “much weaker labor market with 20,700 fewer jobs,” Klepper-Smith said “These are big changes in CT’s economic landscape!”
Klepper-Smith described the numbers as “lackluster and sluggish.”
“The Connecticut economy is facing major obstacles to growth heading into 2016 and growing weakness in key metrics is becoming readily apparent,” he added.
Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said the job growth numbers were grossly overstated.
“The governor’s repeated comments that our state has recovered all the jobs it had lost in the recession were at best premature,” Candelora said. “We now just lost 14,700 jobs because of errors in computing job growth.’’