State’s Jobless

Rate Falls

HARTFORD  (AP) — Connecticut’s unemployment rate dipped to 8.7 percent in October, the second straight month it has declined.

The Labor Department reports that the state gained 6,500 jobs in the month, mostly in the professional and business services sector and construction.

Director of the Office of Research Andy Condon said Monday that the sectors responsible for most of the growth benefited from repairs driven by Hurricane Irene, which hit the shoreline as a tropical storm in August. He said that kind of growth is expected to be temporary.

The unemployment rates dipped to 8.9 percent in September, when it fell to below 9 percent for the first time in almost two years.