State Unemployment Drops Below 9 Percent, Farmington at 6.5 Percent

Connecticut’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.9 in September, according to the latest figures from the state Department of Labor.

“An increase in jobs and a drop in the number of unemployed were positives for this month,” said Andy Condon, director of the Office of Research at the Connecticut Department of Labor. “Unlike the last two months, changes in the employment and unemployment estimates have returned to more typical levels.”

The 2,000 new non-agricultural jobs added to Connecticut in September represent a .01 percent increase from August. September is the fourth month of job growth in Connecticut, tempered with four months of declining jobs and one month of no change.

From the Connecticut Department of Labor:

Based on the household survey, the estimate of people unemployed in September 2012, seasonally adjusted, was 169,500, which is lower by 1,500 (-0.9%) from August 2012 while the unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.9%. This is back to the same level tallied in July 2011. The September 2012 United States unemployment rate was 7.8%, down three-tenths of a percentage point over the month. Connecticut is now well above the national unemployment rate. September average weekly initial unemployment claims for first-time Connecticut filers decreased over the month by 252 (-5.3%) to 4,527, and were lower by a solid 1,400 claims from September 2011, or -23.6%. In other words, unemployment insurance claims data do not support this unusually large increase in the unemployment rate estimates in recent months.

The unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force. The unemployed are all persons who did not work, but were available for work during the survey week (except for temporary illness) and made specific efforts to find a job in the prior week. Persons waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not be looking for work to be classified.

In Farmington, unemployment currently stands at 6.5 percent, down from 7.4 percent in August. That's 841 people, out of the town's 13,034 workers, according to the Department of Labor. 

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy remains skeptical of the unemployment rate.

“With the release of the numbers today, the only thing that’s any clearer is how conflicting the data continues to be,” he said in a written statement. “Yes, the divide between the employer’s survey and the household survey has narrowed.  But they still tell two stories that can’t both be true.”