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Updated: May 21, 2020

DOL: CT shed at least 266K jobs in April; declines likely ‘severely underestimated’

By Joe Cooper

Connecticut shed at least 266,300 net jobs in April amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the state Department of Labor, which cautioned Thursday that estimated job losses last month were “severely underestimated” due to a data entry reporting error.

DOL said non-farm employment in April declined by a historic 15.9% from revised March levels as the coronavirus outbreak forced the closure of countless businesses nationwide. That skyrocketed Connecticut’s unemployment rate to 7.9%, up sharply from 3.7% estimated a month ago. 

The U.S. jobless rate in April was 14.7%, up 10.3% from March, DOL said.

The catastrophic estimated job losses last month, however, are expected to worsen by a significant margin, labor officials said. That’s because Connecticut’s unemployment rate for April, produced by a program within the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), was compromised by misreported residential unemployment data. The “misclassification issues” mean Thursday's April jobs report “must be considered inaccurate,” DOL said.

“The Connecticut unemployment rate appears severely underestimated due to challenges encountered in the collection of data for the April Current Population Survey which is the foundation of the statistical model used to determine all states’ unemployment rates,” DOL said Thursday. “In addition to a poor response rate in an already small sample size in Connecticut, certain key questions appear to have been misinterpreted and misclassified.”

[Read more: Another 2.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week]

Meantime, a previously-released report that said Connecticut lost 7,600 jobs during the first two weeks of March was revised downward to a loss of 22,100 jobs for the month.

For the year, nonagricultural employment in the state has decreased by 276,800 (16.4%) seasonally adjusted jobs.

“Connecticut and the nation saw a rapid and unprecedented level of job loss in April due to the pandemic,” said Andy Condon, who leads DOL’s Office of Research. “All industries saw significant declines, but the hardest hit included leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and education and health services.”

He continued: “What remains to be seen is how many of these jobs were suspended and will return when public safety permits and how many were permanently lost.” 

DOL on Thursday said it's received more than 544,000 jobless claims in roughly two months, and has provided over $1.57 billion in unemployment benefits after processing 507,000 claims since mid-March. That volume is typically seen over a period of several years. 

In April, DOL said private sector employment fell by 246,400 jobs, or a 17.1% decline, to a total of 1,195,900 jobs. That’s now down by 256,100 seasonally-adjusted jobs (down 17.6%) compared to April 2019.

The government supersector shed 19,900 jobs last month to a total of 215,200. That represented a decline of 20,700 jobs, or 8.8%, over the year.

Jobs declines were led by the leisure and hospitality sector with a loss of more than half of its workforce, or a decline of 72,500 positions. Trade transportation and utilities followed with a loss of 50,400 net jobs. 

Other sectors recording job losses in April included:

  • Education and health: 45,200 job losses (13.3%)
  • Professional and business services: 26,300 job losses (11.7%)
  • Other services: 24,100 job losses (37.4%)
  • Manufacturing: 13,300 job losses (8.2%)
  • Construction and mining: 10,700 job losses (17.6%)
  • Financial activities: 2,600 job losses (2.1%)
  • Information: 1,300 job losses (4.1%)

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