CONNTACT.COM

WETHERSFIELD - The state's monthly unemployment rate fell to 8.2 percent in November, but Connecticut also lost 2,600 jobs the same month. So which figure should Connecticut employers and employees look to as a bellwether of the 2010 job outlook? Maybe neither. According Salvatore DiPillo, labor statistics supervisor for the state's Department of Labor, a third variable also must be factored in when assessing the employment outlook. "[L]ower unemployment rates and fewer unemployed people are not necessarily signals of better economic times," says DiPillo. "If people are not seeking work, then they are not counted among the labor force, and do not figure into the unemployment rate. A consistent positive sign we have seen, however, is the steady decline in the number of initial unemployment claims - with November's total down by 8.8 percent from last year."

The largest number of jobs (2,000) was lost in the professional and business services sector, while the manufacturing and construction sectors each shed 700 jobs. Countering those losses was the education and health-services sector, which added 900 new jobs. In the other services sector (which includes industries such as personal and laundry services, repair and maintenance services, and religious, grant making, civic and professional organizations) 400 jobs were added. The information sector saw 200 new jobs. The number of people unemployed in November, seasonally adjusted, was 155,400. Connecticut has lost a total of 88,200 jobs since March 2008, which the DOL considers the beginning of the recession.