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Small Job Losses Seen Across Fairfield County As Jobless Rate Holds At 6.9%

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- Connecticut added 5,800 total jobs in May, but small job losses were seen across Fairfield County, according to figures from the state Department of Labor. 

The Labor Market Area lead by Danbury lost 300 jobs and the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk LMA lost 100 jobs from April to May, according to a statement from the Labor Department.

But the state's state's unemployment rate continues to hold steady at 6.9 percent, the state said. Federal business payroll surveys show an increasing pace of job growth for the state, with seven of ten major industry supersectors growing 12,500 jobs added since January, the state said.

The May seasonally adjusted employment level of 1,665,500 is a new employment recovery highpoint for the state, surpassing the old recovery high of 1,663,500 reached in December 2013, just before the January deep freeze set in, the state said.

Connecticut’s unemployment was 6.9 percent for May, unchanged from April but down nine-tenths of a percentage point from the May 2013 unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, the state said in a press release.

“Connecticut nonfarm job levels now exceed levels reached before the deep winter freeze set in during January, and are now at a new recovery high,” said Andy Condon, director of the Office of Research at the state Department of Labor. “At this point, the resiliency of the recovery appears to be bringing people back into the labor force.”

The largest job growth was seen in professional and business services with 2,300 jobs and the trade, transportation and utilities industries with 2,000 new jobs.

Connecticut has now recovered 71,600 positions, or 60.1 percent of the 119,100 jobs lost in the state during the March 2008 to February 2010 employment recession.

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