The number of local
government jobs in Hartford, Connecticut will soon drop. The city's
mayor, Eddie A. Perez, recently announced that Hartford will be reducing its workforce by 132 jobs.
The decision to do away with these jobs was reached as a way to fix some of the city's budgeting problems. According to the mayor's office, cutting these
Hartford jobs will save the city more than $6 million a year. Hartford won't begin to experience most of these savings until the next fiscal year.
Thirty of the
Connecticut jobs to receive the ax will come from already vacant positions that will not be refilled. These jobs were already budgeted for.
Another 46 of these jobs will come from not filling in staff vacancies from employees that announced their desire to retire soon. After these positions are taken into account, Hartford will only have to layoff 56 workers.
The Mayor has made it a point to reassure residents that none of these layoffs will take place at the city's police headquarters or fire stations. According to him, none of the positions will affect the well being or safety of the city's residents.
"With the financial crisis impacting cities across the nation and with the announcement by the Governor of deep cuts to the state budget, we had to move decisively to maintain a balanced budget and keep our fiscal house in order," said Perez in a recent statement. "These layoffs will not impact public safety and have been formulated in a way to maintain the quality of core city services."
Aside from this, there has been no word as to which of the offices will lose employees.
"The City's request for concession by impacted unions was not successful," said the mayor. "All impacted employees will be provided with transitional assistance to help them find positions outside city government."
Labels: Connecticut jobs
In the month of June employers created 3,600 new
Connecticut jobs. On top of this, the state has regained nearly 91 percent of the jobs that it lost during the first few months of last year, according to the
Connecticut Department of Labor.While most of the nation lost jobs last month, June was the second month in row that Connecticut added jobs. The total number of people working nonfarm jobs was 1,705,800, which means the state has gained 5,900 since last year. In May, Connecticut employers created 3,300 new positions. At the same time, the unemployment rate remained steady at 5.4 percent.
"Connecticut's economy went in the opposite direction from that of the nation again [in June] showing gains rather than losses in almost all major industry sectors," said state labor economist John Tirinzonie.
During last month, seven of the state's 10 major industries showed job growth and two posted no change. The information sector was the only industry to report job losses.
The housing slump, which has greatly effected the
construction industry, has yet to cause any real problems in Connecticut. So far, the number of jobs in this sector has remained relatively unchanged for the last year. Nationally, this sector has experienced a 5.9 percent decline.
"Much of this difference is due to employment stability in 'specialty trades contractors' here in Connecticut, while at the national level this industry has seen its work force lose a considerable number of jobs over the last two years," said Tirinzonie.
Another industry that has been suffering across the country is the manufacturing sector. Once again, Connecticut is not following the trend. In June, employers reported a gain of 200 new jobs.
The area of the state that had the highest unemployment rate was once again Waterbury, where the percentage of the population that was unable to find work went from 7.1 percent to 7.3 percent. Out of the last 91 months, Waterbury has had the highest unemployment rate in Connecticut 90 times. Approximately 7,600 people were without work in this area, which is an increase of 400 people since May.
Labels: Connecticut jobs
