CT loses jobs but unemployment rate drops

A few people who’ve lost their jobs have moved away to look for work elsewhere, he said.

North Dakota’s unemployment rate of 2.8 percent was the lowest in the nation, followed by Nebraska’s 2.9 percent.

Almost 1.3 million Arkansans were employed and 68,500 were unemployed in October.

The jobless rate ticked up despite a net gain of 20,000 seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs over the month, for a total of 203,900 hires over the past 12 months.

Overall labor demand as measured by the number of job orders posted at the Mesa County Workforce Center in Grand Junction has declined.

The government counts people as unemployed only if they’re actively seeking a job. “In addition workers will jump between jobs and there will be upwards wage pressures”.

The numbers tell that story.

The national unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5 percent in October. All divisions except the Mountain had significant rate changes from a year earlier, all of which were declines.

“I don’t think the economy is set up where we’re going to be getting those jobs back any time in the near future, ” Rounds said.

The number of manufacturing jobs in Arkansas continues to decline.

The preliminary Omaha unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a percentage point from September to 2.9 percent in October.

“We are seeing the fruits of that in the 2015 construction”, Fusaro said. “It was all the high-value electronics”. It has not been this high in nearly seven years. “We are in a position that would make just about any other state envious”.

Layoffs in the energy sector also have driven up claims for unemployment benefits, he said. The largest gains were in health care/social assistance (up 23,000 jobs), leisure/hospitality (18,700) and food services (18,000).

Monroe County continues to have the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 3.4 percent with St. Johns County on the First Coast as the next lowest at 3.6 percent.

“They’re building very expensive transportation-little, mini, fast bus lane things-but they’re not anxious about technology which is the real super highway”, said Savage.