Employment Index Shows State Outperforming New England, Nation

HARTFORD — November’s Monster Employment Index, analyzed by the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc (CERC), indicates Connecticut is continuing to outperform the New England Region and the nation over the last couple of months.

Although all three regions declined between October and November after increases in the previous month, Connecticut’s decrease was only one point, while the nation declined by four points and New England declined by three.

*In the last few months, Connecticut has closed the gap between the state and New England indexes that had been present since the beginning of the index in January 2008.

*Although decreasing slightly between October and November, Connecticut’s growth over the last two months of 4.9 percent exceeded New England’s, which grew by only 1.6 percent and the United States, which declined by 0.7percent.

*Connecticut’s index decreased by 0.8 percent between October and November 2011.

*Connecticut’s online job index is 6.7 percent higher than it was a year ago.  After a decline of 1.6 percent New England’s is only 4.9 percent higher than last year. Other areas of the nation, however, are stronger since overall the November 2010 to November 2011 growth for the nation is 9.7 percent.

*Connecticut’s index at 128 was 19 points below the US total for November 2011.

*Although relatively low, the average monthly growth rate over the last year observed for Connecticut at 0.62 percent was higher than the 0.47 percent observed for New England but lower than the 0.84 percent observed for the nation as a whole.

The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job demand based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career web sites and online job listings.

The index is a leading indicator showing the willingness of firms to offer job opportunities; more opportunities assume additional job hires in the future.

CERC is partnering with Monster Government Solutions, a subsidiary of Monster Worldwide, to offer exclusive, real time Connecticut labor market data on a month-to-month basis.

For information, visit the online, interactive CERC/Monster Employment Index Dashboard and choose Monster Employment Index from the At a Glance dropdown menu