Connecticut added 3,500 jobs in April and estimates for March were revised upward from 300 jobs to 1,000 jobs, according to the Connecticut Labor Department.
“Connecticut saw increases in both job counts and labor force participation in April,” Andy Condon, director of the Office of Research, said Thursday.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate was estimated at 5.7 percent, which is the same as it was last month, and down by one-tenth of a percent from April of last year.
“As new workers entered or re-entered the labor force, the number of unemployed also grew,” Condon said. “This explains recent upward pressure on our unemployment rate.”
Connecticut has now recovered 95,600 positions, or 80.3 percent of the 119,100 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs that were lost in the state during the recession. The private sector has recovered at a faster rate, recouping 105,400 — or 94.4 percent — of the 111,700 private sector positions that were lost during that same employment recession.
This means the state is about 23,500 jobs from attaining full job recovery, and are not likely to see full job recovery until the end of 2017 at the current pace, according to Don Klepper-Smith, an economist with DataCore Partners.
“The data indicates that we’re maintaining a steady pace of recovery as we put our state on a path for success and growth, and is indicative of our need to do what we can to stabilize our state’s finances and help bring confidence to employers,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, said. “We have more to do, and we will continue in our efforts to create good paying jobs with good benefits for middle class families in Connecticut.”
In April, nine of the 10 major industry sectors increased their employment. The only sector to lose employment was the leisure and hospitality industry, which lost 3,000 jobs in April. The large decline, according to the Labor Department, was preceded by seven months of gains. Labor officials attributed the decline in accommodation and food service to an early Easter.
The government sector, which includes the two tribal casinos, gained 100 jobs in April but has still lost 700 jobs over the first four months of the year.
In March, the Department of Labor revised its job growth estimates for 2015 nearly in half when it reported that the state only added 12,200 jobs in 2015, and not the 26,900 jobs initially reported.
All estimates are based on employer surveys and they will be adjusted for the year next March.