Unemployment Rate Drops to 7.7 Percent

The state’s unemployment rate is now 7.7 percent, the lowest it’s been in three years, but the state lost 2,700 jobs for the month, which business experts warn "illustrates the fragile nature of the state's economic recovery."

“While I’m certainly pleased that our unemployment rate continues to decline, we still have a long way to go in this growing recovery. The fact remains that if you don’t have a job, the unemployment rate is basically 100 percent,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement.

This is the eighth consecutive month the unemployment rate has decreased, in part because of lack of cold weather.

“The warm winter allowed many weather sensitive job sectors to remain active longer and show stronger growth than is typical. As a result, the normal seasonal upswings we see in the spring appear smaller than usual. Once seasonally adjusted, some of these sectors, including construction and trade, are now showing declines,” Andy Condon, director of Office of Research, said.

Over the year, the state has added 10,500 jobs, according to the Office of Research.

“State government is working to help improve this situation. From the Small Business Express Program to the innovative incentives designed to spur new hiring, the policies we’ve enacted are beginning to pay dividends. But we have a lot more work to do,” Malloy said.

Connecticut Business & Industry Association cautions that the growth remains slow.

"Year-over-year job growth is basically just half a percent and that's not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination. We've recovered less than one-third of the jobs that were lost through the recession," Pete Gioia, an economist with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said in a statement.

This is the list of the state’s unemployment rate during the last year: