Private-sector employment hit a record high even as government job losses ended Connecticut\u2019s five-month streak of overall gains.<\/p>\n
Connecticut\u2019s five-month stretch of job gains ended in August with a loss of 300 payroll positions, although private-sector employment reached a record high, according to the state Department of Labor.<\/p>\n
Declining government employment accounted for the overall loss. Meanwhile, the state\u2019s unemployment rate fell to 5.1%, down from 5.2% in July, the DOL said.<\/p>\n
The department also increased its estimate of July hiring, reporting a gain of 3,100 jobs compared with the 2,800 initially announced.<\/p>\n
Connecticut\u2019s job growth rate of 0.8% so far in 2026 exceeded the national rate of 0.4%, according to the department. Total payroll employment remained above 1.73 million.<\/p>\n
Healthcare and construction added jobs in August, with construction employment reaching its highest level in 18 years. Manufacturers reduced staffing during the month, but the sector still employed more people than it did a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Private education employment also declined. Labor officials said the timing of the employment survey and the late Labor Day holiday may have affected those figures.<\/p>\n
Despite the lower unemployment rate, the state\u2019s labor force \u2014 which includes people working or actively seeking jobs \u2014 contracted by 4,100 in August. The department cited retirements among Connecticut\u2019s aging population and noted that federal immigration policy changes have been widely reported to affect workforce participation.<\/p>\n
Officials said the increase in Connecticut\u2019s unemployment rate over the past year has largely reflected people entering the job market, rather than layoffs. Unemployment claims remained roughly in line with year-earlier levels.<\/p>\n
Labor Commissioner Dant\u00e9 Bartolomeo said employers\u2019 cautious approach to hiring has prolonged some job searches and made experienced workers more reluctant to leave their current positions.<\/p>\n
Patrick Flaherty, the department\u2019s research director, said August\u2019s results may signal a return to a pattern seen since the pandemic, with stronger hiring early in the year giving way to slower growth later. He expects modest job gains for Connecticut in 2026, provided the national economy does not weaken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Private-sector employment hit a record high even as government job losses ended Connecticut\u2019s five-month streak of overall gains.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-851813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851813","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=851813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}