[BagongBuhay]

Quote: "Among the states, Connecticut had the largest increase in claims of 816, followed by Louisiana, Tennessee, Arizona and Nebraska. The state data lag initial claims by a week."

New jobless claims drop to 601K; retail sales rise - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090611/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy - broken link)

Hubby and I still have a lot of friends and clients in CT and are concerned for them. Are the insurance companies laying off a lot? Which companies have laid off the most YTD?

[Leilani Vasquez]

A lot of companies are still laying off. I work for a real estate development firm, and a lot of our tenants are downsizing, and cutting back. Most of them being a satellite office for a larger, national company.

I'm also finding out that a lot of the companies are instilling programs that make their employees more accountable for their time. A good friend of mine works for MetLife, and if she's away from her desk for more than a certain amount of time, or logs in 2 minutes after she's supposed to start work, the "system" is notified. She told me that her manager said that 85% of their employees have either a verbal or written warning. I guess their doing this to keep the good employees. My aunt works for Comcast, and they have something similar there.

[jjbradleynyc]

Companies are laying off, but it depends on the area. Some companies are still hiring, but again, depends on the "niche" of employment. Healthcare is a strong area, but finance of course, has been hit hard. I staff companies with IT professionals, and of all my clients (62)--just 3 are hiring now--in the IT world of course.

I do feel a change coming though...I think we are over the worst of it.

[7 Wishes]

816 is a very small number, as these numbers usually are. It is unusual for a small state like CT to lead. But in this vein I have seen (even recently) months where NY or California are in the "top 5" for gain in claims, and the next month they're in the "top 5" for drop in claims, and back and forth, it's a very volatile figure given that it's so small that I wouldn't put too much weight on.

As for hiring, from what I've seen I mostly agree with jjbradley. Healthcare is strong as always, IT is strong if you are skilled in a specialty area, or a relatively new area (which is that the 3 jjb mentions probably are). Also, all too often you are locked into doing IT contract jobs, especially after a certain age (roughly 40, but an older person really really skilled in a specialty or new area will still get a "regular" job).

Education could have a comeback once the budgets hopefully straighten themselves out in a year or two with what I think is a still anemic but improving economy. The reason for all those "mixed" numbers (i.e. very slight growth) on education you see out there is that colleges are still hiring somewhat, but in public schools, there are still openings if you teach middle (or more so high school) math and science (as has been true historically), but if you teach other subjects or elementary school you are facing the fact that most districts are either laying off or having freezes.

[BagongBuhay]

When you folks mention "healthcare", are you referring to healthcare insurance industry or healthcare providers? I ask this since United, Aetna, CIGNA and Connecticare combined have a large employment base in CT. If they are still hiring, then that's a good sign.

[JayCT]

You have to remember that Connecticut historically is one of the last states to be hit by recession. It has to do with the types of businesses we have here and our general economy. Other states were hit with the recession much earlier but only in the last few months that Connecticut has been seeing issues. One can only hope that it will not last much longer. Jay

[jjbradleynyc]

Originally Posted by bibit612

When you folks mention "healthcare", are you referring to healthcare insurance industry or healthcare providers? I ask this since United, Aetna, CIGNA and Connecticare combined have a large employment base in CT. If they are still hiring, then that's a good sign.

I don't mean the insurance industry, I mean the nuts and bolts of healthcare such as physicians, nurses, physician asst, nurse practioners, and other medical specialty degrees requiring an associate's or bachelor's degree. I'm unsure about that portion of the healthcare industry. I don't think it is doing that well. One of my healthcare insurance clients shuttered its doors in Feb of this year, in Norwalk.

[Veyron]

Well this explains why I cant find a decent job and why so many companies are under paying their workers.