The preliminary nonfarm jobs estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’s (BLS) monthly business survey indicate Connecticut added 4,800 positions (0.28%) in December 2014 - seasonally adjusted.  Connecticut’s level of nonfarm employment has now increased 26,700 jobs (1.61%) since December 2013 to an estimated level of 1,690,200, another new employment recovery high.  The nonfarm employment increase for November (2,900, 0.17%), however, was revised lower by 1,700 jobs from the original release.    

The employed are all persons who did any work as paid employees or in their own business during the survey week, or who have worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a family member. Persons temporarily absent from a job because of illness, bad weather, strike or for personal reasons are also counted as employed whether they were paid by their employer or were seeking other jobs.

The unemployed are all persons who did not work, but were available for work during the survey week (except for temporary illness) and made specific efforts to find a job in the prior four weeks. Persons waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not be looking for work to be classified as unemployed.