| Each mid-decade, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget(OMB) updates statistical area definitions (geographical composition) or labor market areas based on population and commuter patterns from the most recent decennial Census (2010). These newly delineated federal statistical arears or metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) will be utilized going forward and will have reconstructed monthly employment data made comparable back to 1990. New England states call theses MSAs, NECTAs – for New England City and Town Areas because of the heightened importance of the city and town civil jurisdictions
as opposed to counties used extensively elsewhere in the nation. The same criteria used in delineating NECTAs are used for MSAs, except that cities and towns in New
England are utilized as building blocks instead of counties used by the rest of the nation.
The changes to Connecticut’s nine Labor Market Areas (LMAs) or NECTAs are less far reaching this time around as compared to the last area redefinition in 2005. Connecticut will still have the
same six federally recognized statistical areas (NECTAs)) as before, but some town changes around the population core will be based on new commuter patterns. These
newly defined federal statistical areas (NECTAs) still make up over 90% of the employment in the state and are comprised of the major employment center s across Connecticut.
To complete the full geography of Connecticut with comparable labor statistics, the Connecticut Labor Department will continue to estimate and publish labor
data for the other three (non-federal) labor market areas, including all cities and towns in the new Torrington-Northwest Labor Market Area (formerly just the Torrington
LMA), the new Danielson-Northeast Labor Market Area (formerly the Willimantic-Danielson LMA), and the unchanged Enfield Labor Market Area (which is still Connecticut’s
part of the Springfield, MMA-CT NECTA).
Changes in the town composition of the six newly federally recognized NECTAs include the movement of Newtown to the Danbury, CT NECTA from the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT NECTA. There is
also the addition of three towns (Chaplin, Scotland, and Windham – formerly of the old Willimantic-Danielson LMA) to the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT NECTA, while Middlefield, formerly in the Hartford NECTA, moves to the New Haven, CT NECTA. The Waterbury, CT NECTA adds two towns, Bethlehem and Woodbury formerly of the old Torrington LMA). Additionally, the now named Norwich-New London-Westerly, CT-RI NECTA, a cross-state NECTA, gains one town in Rhode Island, Hopkinton. As the state’s population centers have grown in economic importance, the smaller state
labor markets (the new Danielson-Northeast LMA, and the new Torrington-Northwest LMA, the Enfield Labor Market Area remains unchanged) have lost towns because of stronger commuter patterns into larger major employment centers.
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