Westport’s unemployment rate last month increased for the first time this year, according to the Connecticut Department of Labor.
The rate in May was 6.3 percent, up from 5.6 percent in April and the highest in 2010 since January when it was 6.5 percent.
There were similar jumps in the month’s unemployment figures for Weston, Wilton, Darien, New Canaan and Greenwich.
“The modest decreases we experienced earlier this year were tempered by the May report,” said Joseph M. Carbone, president and CEO of Bridgeport-based The WorkPlace Inc., which administers workforce development funds and coordinates job training and education programs in the region.
“Some of our towns experienced significant increases of half a percent or more. Now one month’s numbers don’t make a trend, but the consistency of the increases in the more affluent towns in lower Fairfield County is troubling.
“Our urban centers generally had no change.”
Carbone said a substantial number of the long-term unemployed asre 50 years of age or older. “In fact, 50 percent of those who are exhausting benefits after 99 weeks of coverage are in this group,” he said.
