Connecticut’s Hardest hit Areas for Job loss

March 30, 2009
Matt Isleib

 

While it is too early for March employment numbers we know already that in February the national unemployment rate hit 8.1 percent and the State of Connecticut hit 7.4 percent, both seasonally adjusted. We now have a window as to where the hardest hit towns or cities in the state are.

 

In the past six months, nearly 45,000 people in the State of Connecticut have become unemployed. The hardest hit are:

·         Bridgeport –    has a 12.1% current unemployment rate

·         Waterbury-     has a 12.9% current unemployment  rate

·         Hartford-         has a 14% current unemployment rate

·         New Britain-    has a 11.8% current unemployment rate

·         Plainfield-        has a 11.1% current unemployment rate

·         East Hartford- has a 10.3% current unemployment rate

·         Meriden-          has a 10.0% current unemployment rate

·         New Haven-     has a 10.6% current unemployment rate

These towns and cities have the highest unemployment rates in the state. Of the 139,800 that are currently unemployed in the state it is important to note that between Bridgeport, Waterbury, Hartford, New Haven and New Britain these cities account for 31,596 of the 139,800 unemployed in the state.

 

Connecticut as a state has a heavy concentration of financial jobs both in the state and those that commute to New York.  The alarming figure to look at is the fact that CT residents who commute to New York for employment are not figured in the unemployment date for the State of CT. That certainly puts some emphasis on the Fairfield County number as very large amounts of residents who live in the county are commuters to NYC. New York City’s unemployment rate rose from 6.9% in January to 8.1%.