Connecticut added more than two thousand jobs last month, according to the latest figures from the state Department of Labor. It adds to the positive trend seen through the early part of this year.
The Labor Department always cautions that monthly figures can be volatile, and subject to correction, but April marks the third straight month that the state saw positive job growth. Employers added 2,200 jobs and the unemployment rate, measured through a separate household survey, dropped to 6.9%, down 1/10ths of a percent.
Companies in trade, transportation and utilities added the most jobs, while leisure and hospitality, education and health services, the financial sector, construction and government all saw gains.
Peter Gioia of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association said the news is positive, but the state still lags progress made elsewhere.
"Even with the higher pace of job recovery that we've seen in the last year, at the pace of 1,548 jobs added per month, it takes us 34 months to achieve full employment -- that's February of 2017," he said. "And this is in light of the fact that Massachusetts, New York and the US overall has already achieved full recovery of the jobs lost in the recession, so Connecticut still has a lot of work to do."
The improvement wasn't spread evenly around the state. The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area saw the most jobs added in the month, followed by New Haven and Norwich-New London. Danbury, Hartford and Waterbury all experienced losses.
