Commissioner Bremby said, “Connecticut’s safety net services, including food and medical assistance, will be available to citizens who become eligible after losing unemployment benefits. Our approach will include one-stop shopping for information and application referral at 211 United Way of Connecticut, as well as measures to bring services closer to various communities. This may include DSS workers outstationed in additional areas and expanded use of our mobile office.”

“Although federal legislation enacted this past February extending the time that an individual can apply for and receive federal EUC and EB, the decreasing unemployment rate in Connecticut also decreases the number of federal benefits available to claimants,” said Commissioner Marshall. “While a lower unemployment rate is a good sign for our state’s recovering economy, fewer weeks of assistance represents greater challenges for those trying to pay the bills while looking for a new job.”

Currently, 26 weeks of state benefits and 47 weeks of Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) continue to be available to those eligible to apply for unemployment benefits. As a result of Connecticut’s recently-announced 7.7 percent unemployment rate, however, the state will no longer be eligible to provide seven of the 20 weeks of Extended Benefits (EB).

CT DOL estimates that by the end of 2012, there will be 75,000 long-term unemployment insurance claimants that have exhausted all benefits and have not found work.

By the end of 2012, approximately 17,500 unemployed people will no longer receive EB, representing a loss of $83 million that is not being pumped into the economy. Starting in May 2012, about 11,000 claimants will no longer be eligible for any other benefits; after that point, roughly 450 people a week will exhaust their benefits.

In 2009, Congress approved federally-funded EUC and EB benefits to assist those struggling to find new employment during the recession. In total, between state and federal benefits, claimants were eligible for up to 99 weeks of unemployment compensation. EUC benefits decreased from 53 weeks to 47 last month, and under federal legislation, all EUC benefits will end in December 2012.

Connecticut’s March jobs report showed a loss of 2,700 jobs for the month, which Connecticut Business & Industry Association economist Pete Gioia said “illustrates the fragile nature of the state’s economic recovery.”

The March figures reverse two successive months of growth. The state added 5,400 jobs in January while today’s report from the state Department of Labor revised February’s numbers to 6,000 new jobs, against a previously reported gain of 4,900 jobs.

“Some of the sectors that showed strong gains earlier in the year, showed losses in February,” Mr Gioia said. “That really illustrates the fragile nature of the state’s economic recovery while highlighting just how far we have to go to restore our economy. 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.”

Mr Gioia noted that while the state’s unemployment rate fell slightly to 7.7 percent in March, that was largely attributable to people leaving the workforce rather than job gains.