Here's another one of my updates on the Waterbury unemployment rate. Guess what? We're still number one--in the bad way, not the good way. Waterbury continues to have the highest unemployment rate in Connecticut, ten years in a row. Why? I'm not sure. Our mill rate certainly doesn't help entice employers to stay or move here. You can't really blame the loss of the brass industry--that's old news from 30+ years ago, and it's something we recovered from (in terms of unemployment figures--the psychological impact lingers on). We were doing well during the late '90s. So what happened in 2001 to drag us down, and why haven't we recovered since then?
Here are the latest figures. Did you know that job hunters are being told to not even bother looking in the Waterbury area?
Connecticut Statewide Unemployment Rate
2010 Annual: 9.1%
January 2011: 9.6%
July 2011: 9.2%
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk Metro Area Unemployment Rate
2010 Annual: 8.5%
January 2011: 8.9%
July 2011: 8.5%
Danbury Metro Area Unemployment Rate
2010 Annual: 7.7%
January 2011: 8.0%
July 2011: 7.4%
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford Metro Area Unemployment Rate
2010 Annual: 9.2%
January 2011: 9.6%
July 2011: 9.3%
New Haven Metro Area Unemployment Rate
2010 Annual: 9.3%
January 2011: 10.0%
July 2011: 9.7%
Norwich-New London Metro Area Unemployment Rate
2010 Annual: 8.8%
January 2011: 9.4%
July 2011: 8.8%
Waterbury Metro Area Unemployment Rate
2010 Annual: 12.1%
January 2011: 12.8%
July 2011: 11.8%
Figures for July are preliminary, except for the statewide figure. All data is taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.
1 comment:
Connecticut's small geographic size makes these area-by-area differences somewhat hard to understand. It's not like that in most states: for example, if Philadelphia had a high unemployment rate, a much lower rate in Pittsburgh would be small consolation for unemployed Philadelphia residents unless they were willing to relocate. In contrast, a jobless person in Waterbury is within reasonable commuting distance of most of the rest of Connecticut, and therefore usually can benefit from lower unemployment rates in those areas.
Peter
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