{"id":777661,"date":"2026-07-22T10:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T10:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777661\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T10:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T10:36:08","slug":"cts-unemployment-rate-rose-to-5-2-in-the-first-half-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777661\/","title":{"rendered":"CT\u2019s unemployment rate rose to 5.2% in the first half of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of the first half of 2026, Connecticut\u2019s unemployment stood at 5.2%, a full percentage point higher<\/a> than the national rate.<\/p>\n

June marked the sixth month in a row that the state\u2019s unemployment rate rose, according to the state Department of Labor\u2019s mid-year jobs report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But department officials were quick to emphasize a different statistic in the mid-year report. Connecticut set a new record for the total number of nonfarm jobs, which reached 1,726,500. And they pointed out that some long-struggling industries, including manufacturing and construction, were showing promising job growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first half of 2026, we added more jobs than we did in all of 2025, and job growth in Connecticut was faster than the pace in the nation as a whole \u2014 not by a lot, but a little bit faster,\u201d said Patrick Flaherty, the CTDOL\u2019s director of research.<\/p>\n

Unemployment is a measurement of the number of unemployed people (the numerator) divided by the total labor force, which is the number of people working or looking for work (the denominator). In recent months, the number of unemployed people in Connecticut has ticked up; at the same time the state\u2019s labor force has contracted. Both trends cause the unemployment rate to rise.<\/p>\n

The measure of nonfarm jobs, which comes from a separate survey, can include multiple jobs held by one person.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnecticut employers have added jobs and the state\u2019s economy is growing slowly and steadily,\u201d DOL Commissioner Dant\u00e9 Bartolomeo said in a statement released on Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, business leaders and academics expressed concern that despite the state\u2019s recent GDP growth<\/a> and record-high payroll numbers<\/a>, the unemployment measure suggests weakening in the economy. They pointed to the difficulties facing younger entrants into the workforce and challenges employers face filling the state\u2019s growing number of open jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a high tide, when you have a stable economy, you\u2019re hiding some of the rocks that are under the water,\u201d said Chris DiPentima, the president and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the state\u2019s largest trade group. \u201cBut as that economy starts to slow down or that stability maybe starts to become a little more unsettled, those rocks expose themselves and they could be pretty sharp and pretty damaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the DOL\u2019s latest jobs report<\/p>\n

According to the CTDOL\u2019s June report<\/a>, the number of nonfarm payroll jobs in the state increased by 1,500, or 0.1%,\u00a0last month. That pushed total payroll jobs in the state to 1,726,500, a record high.<\/p>\n

Private sector employment in the state increased by 1,600 jobs, or 0.1%, to a total of 1,490,900. That was an increase of 11,200 jobs, or 0.8% from June 2025.<\/p>\n

The changes were largely spurred by growth in five of the state\u2019s \u201csupersectors,\u201d the ten largest industries in Connecticut. In June, trade, transportation and utilities; construction and mining; manufacturing; information; and education and health services all saw job increases between 300 and 1,200.<\/p>\n

Three sectors, including leisure and hospitality; financial activities; and government all saw declines.<\/p>\n

Flaherty said the growth in manufacturing and construction was promising. He said the decline in sectors like financial activities could be due to changes in technology.<\/p>\n

He called the state\u2019s rising unemployment rate a \u201cpuzzle,\u201d particularly since the overall number of jobs has been growing and there appear to be many openings. The state DOL reports that Connecticut currently has more than 80,000<\/a> job openings.<\/p>\n

He said one possible explanation could be the struggles younger workers are facing nationally<\/a> as they work to gain a foothold in the workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pace of turnover has slowed, new entrants into the labor force are taking longer to find work,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s new graduates or others who are entering the labor force, they\u2019re having a tougher time getting into employment, and that is pushing up the unemployment rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

A construction bright spot?<\/p>\n

One highlight in the mid-year report was the 18-year high in employment in the state\u2019s construction sector.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a significant change from just three years ago, when the state\u2019s construction industry declined by 900 jobs<\/a>, part of a national industry slowdown<\/a> that persisted even as demand for construction workers rose. But the sector has been working its way back.<\/p>\n

Industry leaders point to an increase in training and the work of organizations like the Connecticut State Building Trades Training Institute. Federal policy changes like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act<\/a> have also given the industry a boost.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything really has a lot of momentum right now,\u201d said Don Shubert, the head of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association.<\/p>\n

Leaders representing union trades workers in the state agree. \u201cThe state of Connecticut has done a great job to coordinate or move simultaneously with that federal money that came in and make sure that projects are being done and get out the door,\u201d said Joe Toner, the executive director of the Connecticut State Building Trades Council.<\/p>\n

Even so, Shubert said the state\u2019s construction industry could be even stronger, noting that there\u2019s a \u201cmissing middle\u201d when it comes to construction jobs. That is, midsized, more consistent work is harder to find.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry\u2019s still not running close to capacity,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing better than 2008, but at the same time, we could do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Economic warning signs persist<\/p>\n

DiPentima of CBIA said he\u2019s concerned about a separate trend: people leaving the labor force, meaning they\u2019re no longer working or looking for work.<\/p>\n

He pointed to data that showed that \u2014 with June\u2019s jobs data included \u2014 more than 46,000 workers<\/a> have left the labor force over the last year. \u201cWhen you think about that, over the last 12 months, we\u2019ve essentially lost the city of Middletown \u2014 the population of Middletown \u2014 from the labor force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s largest business group has long been worried about what that labor force decline could mean for local employers. DiPentima said fewer workers could ultimately strain the state\u2019s businesses, potentially encouraging them to move elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The concern grows as older workers retire with fewer younger workers ready to replace them. That\u2019s part of why CBIA has supported the state\u2019s efforts to build new pathways and career options<\/a> from young people.<\/p>\n

The association has also pointed to labor force shifts brought about by changing federal immigration policy, which could have an impact on the state economy by reducing a key source<\/a> of population and workforce growth.<\/p>\n

University of Connecticut economist Fred Carstensen said the state should also be concerned about the quality of jobs available. With Connecticut\u2019s high cost of living, workers could have a harder time surviving if they don\u2019t earn enough, adding an additional challenge to efforts to boost the state\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe affordability crisis in Connecticut\u00a0is significant because, unlike our neighboring states, the quality of jobs here are falling, making it progressively more difficult to pay the bills,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

Flaherty, DOL\u2019s research director, said that while he recognizes some of the frustrations, Connecticut\u2019s growth is a story worth telling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways, having slow, steady growth, positive job growth every year, has been a real benefit to our state,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that we\u2019re in good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the end of the first half of 2026, Connecticut\u2019s unemployment stood at 5.2%, a full percentage point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,1687,2000,15861,2803,133989,101,15862,134,983,331483,111,14222,2853,13109,145,15186],"class_list":["post-777661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-climate","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-news","tag-department-of-labor","tag-dol","tag-economy","tag-hartford-courant","tag-jobs","tag-local-news","tag-max-image-previes","tag-politics","tag-rate","tag-report","tag-state","tag-unemployment","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}