Governor says unemployment rate is lowest in seven years

CBIA economist Pete Gioia said while the unemployment rate is the lowest since July 2008, it’s still more than a percentage point higher than neighboring Massachusetts.The US unemployment rate is 5.3 percent.

The not-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for Maui County ticked up to 4.4 percent compared with 3.9 percent in May.

Malloy, in a statement released later Monday, said the data shows that Connecticut is “no doubt making progress, and our strategy is no doubt moving Connecticut forward”.

The rate for the Island of Maui was up to 4.2% compared with May’s 3.8 percent, but still lower that last year’s 4.8%.

As the state’s economy continues to recover from the recession, the number of unemployed residents has declined by more than 13,000, or 11 percent, since June 2014.

“Overall, we’ve seen a recovery of 82 percent of the jobs lost since the recession”, he said, “but if you look at just the private sector alone, we’ve recovered 94 percent of the jobs”.

“Just by virtue of the way unemployment rates are calculated, there are a lot of folks that don’t get included”, Klepper-Smith said.

Over the year, total nonfarm jobs in Pennsylvania were up 58,000 (+1.0 percent). The not seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 4.4 percent in June, up from 3.9 percent in May.

Four of the state’s 10 major industry supersectors experienced job gains last month, while five declined, and the information supersector remained unchanged.

Local government employment dropped sharply in June with school closings for the summer. Three other sectors – financial activities, manufacturing as well as professional and business services – added 700 jobs each.

The Healthcare and social assistance segment shrank by 900 jobs in June, according to initial estimates, though it’s still one of the largest growth sectors for the year.