Employment Trends: Where We’re Headed

The jobs are still out there in Connecticut, the experts say, you just need to know where to look. 

But the recovery of the job market throughout Connecticut, and in the local area, has been tepid at best. On average, unemployment levels in north central Connecticut towns (see Table 1, at right) dropped to a miniscule 7.73 percent last December from 8.02 percent from the previous September quarter (per the latest data available).

Job boards such as Worklistings.net, Snagjob.com, CTJobs.com and HartfordCountyJobs.com list hundreds of accounting, finance, healthcare, retail and administrative openings. CTJobs.com alone lists 1,381 jobs in East Windsor, 613 in Windsor Locks, 560 in Windsor and 263 in Manchester, according to the Connecticut Department of Labor.

Patrick J. Flaherty, an Economist at the Connecticut Department of Labor, cautioned that a town’s unemployment data does not necessarily coincide with job availability or its lack thereof in that particular town. “The unemployment rate is a residents-based number. The fact that a large number of people are unemployed in a town is not necessarily indicative of that town’s job market, because the residents are likely to be employed in another town. Many people in our state don’t work where they live,” he said. “For example, unemployment in East Windsor is a factor of the Greater Hartford labor market, which has seen a prolonged decline.” 

He said the best opportunities of finding a job are in healthcare, administrative and support services – which after a drastic decline in the recession are starting to come back – and scientific and technical services.

“I think the job market is stronger than what most people think,” said Drew Crandall, director of the Tolland County Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber’s member-towns include Tolland, Ellington, Mansfield and Storrs.

Crandall, the owner of Keep in Touch, a marketing and research firm in Vernon, said it’s not all gloom and doom.

“We’ve been bombarded with pessimistic news for the past three years. But there are opportunities out there. If someone is highly motivated, he can land a job,” he said. “But finding a job is a full-time job.”

Crandall said in general, the region’s optimistic outlook is tied to its entrepreneurial culture. “There are about 3,000 worksites in Tolland County and the average worksite has 13 employees. Our region’s entrepreneurship has taught us to be flexible, adaptable and to innovate,” he said.

Although the light at the end of the tunnel appears to be further off for some regions compared to others.

“Connecticut will have virtually no job recovery in the next few years,” economist Fred V. Carstensen, director of the Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut, said. “However, I expect that the New Haven region will do okay, driven by the continuing success of the Yale-New Haven biomedical complex, and Stamford will do okay with the recovery of financial services. It’s hard to see where southeastern or central Connecticut will find any economic drivers, unless the state under (Gov. Dan) Malloy takes vigorous initiatives.”

Sally White, vice president of the North Central Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, which serves the towns of East Windsor, Somers, Suffield and Enfield, said people must learn to build multiple sources of income. “In today’s economy, you have to develop multiple sources of revenue unless you’re an established business with say, 25 or more employees.”

White works at an elderly care facility in Enfield and as an adjunct professor of organizational development at Springfield College. Her organizational development and leadership-consulting firm, Gap Closers, is currently on a hiatus. “People cut their marketing budget when the economy was hit. And down we went,” she said. The passing away of her husband, also her business partner, made 2010 a difficult year.

“Things are tough, the job market is still down. People are feeling it is going to be a long haul,” she said.

Interestingly, the demand for some types of jobs continues to exceed supply.

“There are jobs out there, mainly in manufacturing, but employers are having trouble finding people with the necessary skills to fill the positions. Students are not coming out of high school with the skills needed to go to work, and more than 80 percent of those going to college need to take remedial classes when they get to college before they can qualify for college level classes,” said Sue O’Connor, president of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. 

The Chamber worked with Illing Middle School last October to hold a career fair for middle school students for jobs that don’t require a four-year college degree. Many positions required a two-year degree, certification, or an apprenticeship period.

“Careers included banking, grocery, food service, audio visual, HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning), electrician, automotive, healthcare, dental technician, professional gardening, municipal, and community college (work),” she said.

“As to the economy, I think folks are cautiously optimistic, and starting to spend a little more. We're certainly not where we were, but things are a bit looser now than this time last year.”