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Tale of the Tape
The numbers tell all: 1998 saw near-complete recovery of state's economy
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Business New Haven
3/22/1999
By: BNH
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Not only did the state's economy not sink in 1998, it actually swam quite nicely, thank you.
Among leading economic indicators, according to the state's Department of Labor and Department of Economic & Community Development, new housing permits reached a ten-year high, breaking the 10,000 barrier for the year.
Likewise, the number of new automobile registrations was an all-time high in the 36 years the statistic has been kept: more than 212,000.
If Connecticut residents are living (and driving) higher on the hog than before, it's easy to see why: Last year's rise in personal income exceeded the rise in the cost of living by nearly three percentage points.
Last closed on a two-percent employment gain statewide, the strongest annual figure since the recovery breathed its first in 1992. Non-farm employment grew by 32,400 jobs last year, an 11.7 percent hike over the 1997 increase of 29,000 jobs.
That means, according to the DOL, that the state had by year end regained nine of every ten jobs lost during the 1989-92 recession. And although the job growth lagged the national average (up 2.6 percent for the year) a bit, according to the DOL/DECD-published Connecticut Economic Digest, “Our state now appears poised to exceed the fringes of recovery and move into full-fledged expansion.”
Between January 1998 and January of '99, the New Haven Labor Market Area (LMA) gained 5,100 non-farm jobs - a 2.1 percent hike. The Waterbury LMA gained 1,000 jobs, 1.2 percent rise. Bridgeport's LMA recorded less new-job activity, adding just 100 jobs (an 0.1-percent hike) from January to January.
Even negative indicators were, well, positive. The number if initial unemployment claims fell to its lowest level (3,743) in a decade. And the newly-benchmarked unemployment rate for 1998 dropped to 3.4 percent from 5.1 percent the year before, making it the lowest rate since pre-recession 1988 (when it stood at 3.0 percent), and comfortably below the national average of 4.5 percent, as state businesses began in earnest to feel the pinch of a skilled worker shortage.
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