State To Set Jobs Record This Year

 HARTFORD (AP) — State economists are projecting a new record in the number of jobs in Connecticut this year.

Partly due to stronger job growth last year than initially recorded, Connecticut should reach the employment record this summer, economists at the University of Connecticut’s Center for Economic Analysis said in a report released Wednesday.

The state gained 7,000 more jobs in 2006 than previously believed, according to revised employment numbers. Through the end of March, the state had 1.69 million jobs, or 19,000 more than in the same quarter last year.

The state “may be embarking on a path of job growth,” the authors wrote in the report.

The rate of growth was greatest in the social assistance segment, which employs the smallest total number of people, about 40,000, the report said. The education and child care services segment grew next-fastest.

Growth was slowest within the government and professional and business services segments.