CTloses4,600 jobs in June, as recovery's 'wide swings' continue
Jul. 20—"The pandemic and recovery have caused some wide swings in monthly data, making economic trends more valuable to forecasting than a single month's numbers," Department of Labor Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo said in a written statement. "Overall, Connecticut's economy remains solid and stable with economists monitoring closely for signs of weakening."
In total, Connecticut has recovered about 96 percent of the approximately 289,000 jobs that it lost during pandemic-sparked economic shutdowns in the spring of 2020.
The approximately 1.69 million payroll jobs that it recorded last month was 20,300 positions, or 1.2 percent higher than the total in June 2022. But the increase lags a national uptick of 2.5 percent during the same period.
Last month's jobs total compared with about 1.70 million positions in February 2020, the last full month before Connecticut recorded a COVID-19 case, and 1.72 million jobs in March 2008, which marked the state's all-time employment peak.
Employment dropped in seven of the state's 10 sectors. Leisure and hospitality and "other services" each lost 1,700 jobs. There were declines of 1,000 in information; 900 in financial activities; 700 in educational and health services; 600 in trade, transportation and utilities; and 100 in professional and business services.
Three sectors gained jobs last month. There were increases of 1,000 in construction, 700 in government and 400 in manufacturing.
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"Seasonally adjusted reports assume that June is a big hiring month. However, in Connecticut, the warm weather resulted in earlier hiring in both winter and spring of 2023," Patrick Flaherty, director of the labor department's Office of Research, said in a statement. "The largest June job declines were in the same industries with strong May job gains. Accommodation and food services saw a hiring bump in May as restaurants and hotels brought on staff to meet tourism demand, hiring they would normally do in June."
Connecticut's unemployment rate last month ran at 3.7 percent, unchanged from May and down from 4 percent in June 2022. The national rate was 3.6 percent in June.
With unemployment low, many businesses are still having difficulty finding enough people to fill their openings. There are about 90,000 jobs available across the state, according to DOL data.
The state's shrinking labor force is also challenging employers. The labor force, which includes workers and unemployed people looking for work, is down 2 percent from June 2022, and it has declined for six consecutive months.
"Job growth is essential for building a robust, vibrant economy, and we must address the factors driving the labor shortage and employment in the state," Chris DiPentima, CEO and president of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said in a statement.
Unemployment-benefits fraud warning
Also this week, the Department of Labor issued a warning about the prevalence of identity theft related to unemployment benefits.
Connecticut's unemployment system is receiving several thousand claims per day. Department officials said that they suspect around 75 percent of those claims are fraudulent and that the department withholds payment in those cases.
During the pandemic, stolen identities have been available on the dark web for about one dollar, according to the department. Criminals are still mining that resource to purchase names, Social Security Numbers, birth dates, and other personal information that they use to apply for credit cards, bank loans and unemployment benefits, the department also said.
"CT DOL takes immediate action to notify employers when someone has filed against them, as a result, employers are often the first to know that an identity was stolen. In many cases, that employee still works for them," Bartolomeo said in a statement. "Victims of ID theft also receive a notice of monetary determination, a notification that alerts them that someone has filed a claim using their identity. It's critical that employers and employees report this fraud to CT DOL so we can protect benefits and the Trust Fund from fraud."
Residents should report identity theft to the labor department if they receive a monetary determination letter or a 1099 tax form from the Department of Labor, but have not filed for unemployment benefits, department officials said.
The labor department's Fraud Watch webpage has information on preventing, reporting and recovering from fraud including identity theft. Additional information for employers is found on the ReEmployCT employer page.
