Joachim Hero, M.P.H., Orlando Rodriguez, M.A., and Jacob Siegel

This annual review of wage, employment and job sector trends finds that:

• The long-term unemployment rate in Connecticut -- the share of unemployed workers seeking work who have been out of work for 6 months or more -- is the fourth highest in the country at 37%. The underemployment rate -- which includes the unemployed, part-time workers who want to work full-time, and discouraged workers who have stopped looking for work -- is at a historic high for the state, at 14%.
• Only the Health and Education job sector experienced substantial job growth since the beginning of the recession, growing by 4.6% from March 2008 through 2010. The state's only successful job sector may be threatened by state budget cuts, since this sector is heavily dependent on public sector investment.
• In recent years, middle-wage occupations have experienced the steepest job losses. This group of occupations, which include middle-class jobs have lost 6.8% of their positions between 2006 and 2009. This is a troubling loss of occupations that have traditionally provided living wages.
• Racial, ethnic, and gender gaps in wages are much wider in Connecticut than among workers in other states. The median wage for Connecticut's African Americans was only 62% of the white median wage in 2009. Hispanics earned only 60% of the median wage of whites in the state. Connecticut also has the sixth worst gender gap in wages among all states, with women earning 76% of men's median wages.

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Full Report (1.12M)
Press Release (93.76K)
Executive Summary (139.77K)
State of Working Connnecticut 2010: Trends in Local Labor Markets Area (729.34K)
Labor Market Area data file (429K)