Connecticut posted its best month for job gains in 20 years in September, adding 11,500 positions to its workforce. That’s the largest monthly improvement since 1994.
The state Department of Labor says it’s also revising August’s numbers. Preliminary data showed a loss that month of 3,600 jobs, but the DOL now says that loss was only 1,200. The state is now at the highest level of employment yet reached since the recession, and has added back 26,100 jobs so far this year.
Economists are urging caution, though, saying month-to-month figures can throw out big statistical anomalies, which are often later corrected. The overall trend in the state over the last several years still shows only modest job growth compared to the nation, and to neighbors such as Massachusetts. Connecticut is still expected to take until mid-2016 to add back all of the jobs it lost during the recession.
The unemployment rate, which is measured by a separate survey, went down two-tenths of a percent to 6.4 percent in September.