State Employment Index Outpaced Nation In 2011

HARTFORD — In December’s Monster Employment Index, analyzed by the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc (CERC), Connecticut continued to outperform the New England region and the nation. In every month since last January 2011 Connecticut has outperformed the nation.

This better performance, however, is tempered by the decrease of Connecticut’s index by three points when compared to the previous month.

*Connecticut’s Monster online technical jobs index declined by three points from 128 to 125 between November and December. However, New England’s declined by five (from 129 to 124) and the US declined by seven (from 147 to 140).

*December’s index marks the first time since at least January 2008 that Connecticut’s index has been higher than New England’s.

*Despite slight declines in the last two months, Connecticut’s index is 7.8 percent higher than it was a year ago. This is one tenth of a percentage point higher than the United States and 1.8 percentage points higher than New England.

*More critically, rebasing the index to January 2008 results in Connecticut’s Monster Index being two percentage points higher than the US and 22 points higher than New England.

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 websites 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. Visit the online, interactive CERC/Monster Employment Index Dashboard at http://216.244.120.252:8080