State’s unemployment rate falls to 5.4 percent

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, speaking at a press conference at The Jackson Laboratory in Farmington about the jobs report, noted that a 4.5 percent increase in wages over the past year is “a pretty extraordinary number in this marketplace”. That is above the national rate of 5.1 percent.

Connecticut’s unemployment rate has not been this low since April 2008 – a new seven-year low – when unemployment was increasing at the beginning of the Great Recession (during the recession, it peaked at 9.2% in 2010). West Virginia’s was the highest at 7.6 percent.

“Connecticut’s estimated nonfarm employment growth pace and unemployment rates have come closer in line with national averages this summer”, said Andy Condon, director of the labor department’s Office of Research.

“It’s nice to see it going down”, Pakko said. St. Johns County, a growing area in Northeast Florida, was next with 4 percent followed by Franklin County at 4.3 percent and Okaloosa County at 4.5 percent.

Other job categories with increases were construction, with 400 jobs added, and financial activities, which added 100 workers.

In the Bay Area, San Mateo is the county with California’s lowest unemployment rate at 3.3 percent. In the past year, the rate has dropped 0.6 percent.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate remained steady in August, for the third straight month, as payrolls shrank slightly.

The information sector, which includes the entertainment industry and parts of the tech industry tied to Silicon Valley, added 1,000 net new jobs.

“That has definitely been one of the strongest sectors”, Pakko said.

“The trends have been pretty positive, particularly in service sector jobs”, Michael Pakko, an economist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, told Arkansas Business.

Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics release also revised Maryland’s July estimates, finding 9,700 new jobs that month, 500 more than had been reported originally.

The number of people unemployed in California was 1,163,000 – down by 17,000 over the month, and down by 222,000 compared with August of previous year .

Manufacturing cut 1,300 jobs to 164,300.

“I believe that’s a reflection of the 2011 and 2012 period, when the state lagged considerably behind the rest of the country in terms of job creation”, he said.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate fell in 29 states in August and held steady in 11.