Job information published by the Connecticut Department of Labor confirmed that Connecticut has lost 1,600 jobs in the last month, mostly from the private sector.

The private sector lost 1,500 jobs, which Department of Labor believed may be attributed to poor weather. “Much of the job declines in February came from industries that can be weather affected and it should be noted that that the survey reference week occurred during a particularly cold and snowy period.”

Leisure and hospitality, like restaurants and hotels, saw the highest decline in jobs, followed by jobs in the transportation and financial sectors.

But the cold weather may not be the only reason, enough to explain the state’s poor year-over-year job growth.

Connecticut’s final employment survey of last year stated that the Connecticut lost 200 jobs for the entire year, essentially remaining flat.

While, Massachusetts gained about 56,000 jobs over the course of 2016 and an additional 13,000 in the month of January alone.

According to Don Klepper Smith, the chief economist for DataCore Partners LLC in New Haven, the job growth across the nation has been 1.5 percent; Connecticut has the slowed employment growth in New England.

Connecticut has not recovered the jobs lost during the 2008-09 recession and has shown a slow economic growth in the United States.

Connecticut may never fully recover from the recession. In all probability, Connecticut is not going to get back to its prior job peak.” Klepper Smith said.

Connecticut has only managed to recover 77 percent of the jobs lost during the recession, while other states around Connecticut have all recovered to and grown past those levels. The United States returned to pre-recession employment levels in 2014.

The unemployment rate in Connecticut had a small decline over the last year, but February saw an uptick to 4.7 percent.

AMandeep