Another month, another rise in Connecticut's unemployment rate. The August jobless rate from the Connecticut Department of Labor shows 9 percent unemployment for the first time since April 2011.
The unemployment rate rose from 8.5 percent in July. State officials, including Governor Dannel P. Malloy, remain skeptical about the results.
“To date we can find no corroborating evidence that the record losses in employment and increases in unemployment, indicated by the household survey, are occurring at this magnitude,” said Andy Condon, director of the Office of Research at the Connecticut Department of Labor. “Other indicators, such as unemployment insurance claims, layoff events and reports of business expansions and contractions, do not support the sudden and steep decline in these indicators."
Malloy issued a statement for the second month in a row about his doubt on the accuracyof the results.
“We haven’t seen an increase in the initial number of people filing for unemployment benefits — in July, average weekly filings were 4,802 and in August they were 4,779. In fact, claims are down from this time last year. And tax withholdings are up 3.6 percent after adjustment,” Malloy said. “Those two trends are the opposite of what you would expect to see if the state was losing jobs at the rate suggested in this report."
