By Keith M. Phaneuf
Connecticut’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent to open 2013 after the state gained 4,700 jobs in January, the state Labor Department reported today.
And though public-sector job growth remains weak, more than 2,900 new professional and business jobs helped Connecticut reach a new employment high in its sluggish climb from the last recession. The new report shows the state has regained 43 percent of the more than 121,000 jobs lost in the last economic downturn.
“We are creating private sector jobs in Connecticut. We are growing the economy,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told a roomful of educators at the State Capitol today.
The jobless rate hit its lowest mark in January since June 2012, when it also stood at 8.1 percent. The unemployment rate hovered at or just below 9 percent for most of the second half of 2012 until solid job growth in December pushed the rate down to 8.2 percent.
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