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Almanac
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Business New Haven
4/6/1998
By: BNH
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The Big Get Bigger
Yale-New Haven Health System has completed its merger with Greenwich Hospital. Coming on the heels of a earlier agreement with Bridgeport Hospital, the parent of Yale-New Haven Hospital now boasts of nearly 1,500 beds and $1.3 billion in assets. It also becomes the third-largest non-governmental employee in the state, with nearly 11,000 workers. Founded in 1906, Greenwich Hospital has 160 beds.
Getting Out More
Connecticut's merchandise exports to foreign markets grew by nearly a billion dollars in 1997 over the year before. The state's 14-percent export growth last year placed it ahead of the U.S.. growth rate as well as exceeding that of neighboring states such as Massachusetts and New York. Leading the export parade were transportation equipment, industrial machinery including computers, and instruments and related products.
Up on the Roof
Who says Connecticut manufacturing is dead? Thule Inc. has opened a 22,000-square-foot addition to its 56,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at Silvermine Industrial Park in Seymour. The Swedish maker of multi-purpose roof racks for automobiles now manufacturers more than 90 percent of its products for the U.S. market in Seymour and at another Thule plant in Chicago. The Seymour facility employs about 115 workers, and company officials say they're looking to hire more.
The Soft Parade
One of Connecticut's best-kept secrets (until now) is the success of its software industry in the 1990s. Software has added a net gain of 444 companies since 1992 - a 64-percent increase - and has posted a net employment gain of 60 percent to 12,874 jobs. This employment surge eclipses the growth of every other industry segment in the state since 1992, according to the Connecticut Technology Council. They're also successful financially, at least in the aggregate. An index of publicly traded software firms shows a 46.4-percent average stock price increase in just the past year, compared to a 25.9-percent increase among firms in the same industry nationwide.
Sooner Or Later...
The Connecticut Policy & Economic Council (CPEC) has seized upon an idea whose time may soon have come: improving service and lowering costs for taxpayers and litigants by creating an electronic filing system for court documents. A just-released CPEC study of the issue says that courts in eight states have tested electronic filing since the early 1990s; six of the eight “substantially reduced or eliminated equipment costs by contracting with private partners” to develop systems. Here in the Land of Steady Habits, the state's judicial branch “has not placed a high enough priority on developing electronic filing capabilities,” says CPEC. In fact, the public-policy groups says, electronic filing was not even mentioned in the judicial branch's Strategic Technology Plan released in August 1996.
What's Hot, What's Not
Connecticut's evolution from a manufacturing to a service economy is nearly complete. According to the state's Department of Economic & Community Development, 39 percent of all Connecticut businesses in 1998 will be engaged in the service sector, compared with the seven percent of firms defined as manufacturers. In the meantime, 23 percent of all state firms are engaged in the retail trade. For the current year, says the Connecticut Venture Group (CVG), the top five service-industry performers will be accounting, auditing and bookkeeping, cable television, computer professional services, management consulting and data processing/networking services. All of these are expected to post growth rates in excess of ten percent. In identifying growth industries, CVG in particular cites companies with products and services targeted toward aging baby boomers. These firms tend to be providers of health care, retirement, leisure activities and travel services.
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