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As the most populous city in
the State of Connecticut,
Bridgeport not only has an effect
on the other twelve towns in the
Labor Market Area, but on the
rest of the State as well. Its
location has always been advantageous.
Being on the waterfront
enabled Bridgeport to become a
major nineteenth century shipping
center. The proximity to New
York allowed the Area and City to
become major players in the
expansion of industry that took
place during the early twentieth
century.
The Rise...
The Bridgeport area has had
an admirable history, influenced
by its share of colorful characters.
For example, the master
showman Phineas T. Barnum
was born in Bridgeport and
boldly developed a circus persona
that lives on to this day. Jasper
McLevy served as Bridgeport
mayor from the late thirties until
the early fifties. His legacy
includes his stubborn approach
to attaining a balanced budget:
snow removal was not performed
by the City. When asked how
people would get about during
the winter, the Mayor would say
"the good Lord brought the snow,
the good Lord will take it away,"
and this was true - by early May
not a snowflake would be found.
Folklore has it that many a
travelling salesman would set out
in November from Portland,
Maine and not arrive at his
destination of Poughkeepsie, New
York until the following April. In
truth, the resilient city residents
would actually band together and
shovel the streets to let the buses
pass through.
It was during Mayor McLevy's
years that the City bought Seaside
Park and turned it into a
beachfront amusement park
modeled after New York's Coney
Island. The City also built what
later became Kennedy Stadium.
This was the first stadium in the
State to have lights and from the
1940ís through the 1980's high
school and minor league football
was played in this stadium,
which also hosted professional
boxing and wrestling.
During World War II, Bridgeport
was the ball bearing capital
of the world as firms in the City
and surrounding towns were the
major suppliers of ball bearings
that were used in production of
weapons for the Allied Armies.
Many local residents who were
not called to war could later
boast that they fought the "Battle
of Bridgeport" by working in
these factories.
The City of Bridgeport had the
first television station in the
State. When WICC signed on the
air in 1952, its first newscaster
was Bob Crane, who later became
a major television star. Bridgeport
also opened the State's first
and still only zoo in Beardsley
Park.
The 1950's and 1960's were
especially good for the City and
Area. The construction of Interstate
Route 95 linked Bridgeport
to the entire east coast. The
ìguns and butterî policy of the
sixties proved especially beneficial
to area firms such as
Sikorsky Aircraft and General
Electric which provided parts to
the defense industry. Education
was important in the area as
private colleges such as Sacred
Heart University, the University
of Bridgeport and Fairfield University
expanded their base of
students. The State also showed
its commitment to education by
opening Housatonic Valley Community
College. Bridgeport was
riding a wave of prosperity, but
this wave did crash.
...And Fall
Like virtually every large city,
Bridgeport would begin to experience
a decline in the late 1960's
and early 1970's. Increasing use
of the automobile and new and
improved roads lead people out of
the city and into the suburbs.
For a period of thirty years from
1963-1993, more than 30,000
people left the city of Bridgeport.
During this same time period,
30,000 factory jobs also disappeared.
This changed the entire
industrial mix of the City. Where
in 1963 half of the jobs in the city
were in manufacturing, by 1993
only one in every five jobs was in
a local factory.
The Labor Market Area was
able to hold its own, despite the
City's troubles, during the booming
economy of the 1980's;
however, the beginning of the
1990's proved disastrous for the
entire region. The end of the
"Cold War" led to drastic cuts in
defense spending and the loss of
thousands of manufacturing jobs.
Large employers such as
Sikorsky Aircraft, General Electric,
Bryant Electric, Bic,
Remington and Allied Signal
either eliminated thousands of
jobs or shut their doors altogether.
During the recession of
the early nineties, 22,500 area
jobs were lost.
The loss of jobs combined
with certain non-economic factors
made Bridgeport the butt of
many negative comments. The
city was entirely different from
the ìbustling centerî of twenty
years earlier. Seaside Park was
in shambles, WICC-TV was
defunct, the University of Bridgeport,
beset by financial woes, lost
the majority of its students when
the college was sold to the Reverend
Moon, and the City's beleaguered
police department
struggled with an exploding crime
rate. The City of Bridgeport even
went so far as to declare bankruptcy
in 1990, although the
courts would later rule this move
to be unconstitutional. The last
blow came in 1995 when the
State Senate rejected a proposal,
backed by the Governor, to have
the Mashantucket Pequots build
a casino in downtown Bridgeport.
The State also rejected a bid by
developer Donald Trump to build
a Grand Prix racetrack in the
City.
Reconstruction
In spite of all this, Bridgeport
and its surrounding towns have
begun to climb back up. The
improving State and National
economies have allowed for local
financial institutions to begin
taking certain risks. In the past
two years, 4,100 new jobs have
been created in the Labor Market
Area. Many of these positions are
in small, start-up businesses
such as restaurants, small stores
and other service-oriented firms.
More money has been earmarked
for better police protection and
this has led to a drop in the
crime rate and a safer feeling by
local residents. Old and dangerous
housing projects have been
torn down and residents have
been moved into newer living
quarters. This has led to the
creation of many new construction
jobs. The school system has
been revitalized and the result
has been higher scores on the
student mastery tests. State and
local funds were used to expand
the P.T. Barnum Museum and
the Beardsley Park Zoo, and both
attractions had their highest ever
attendance levels in the past
year. The city of Bridgeport has
even established a Tourism
Council to promote various
events in the City.
A watershed event occurred
last year. When Zurich Reinsurance
sought a package of State
funds to help finance their move
from New York to Stamford, the
Bridgeport area legislative delegation
balked until the company
gave the City ten million dollars.
This money was used to finance
the construction of a 7,000-seat
baseball stadium that now
houses the Bridgeport Bluefish of
the Atlantic Professional Baseball
League. It is expected that a
quarter of a million fans will
come to Bridgeport this summer
to watch baseball. Money is also
being used to renovate the waterfront
and a new baseball museum
is under construction.
Fairfield University and Sacred
Heart University are both in the
midst of major expansion efforts
and enrollment is also rising at
the University of Bridgeport,
which has established the only
programs in the entire State for
Chiropractic and Naturopathic
medicine.
Road To Recovery
The latest efforts to improve
the cities and towns in the
Bridgeport area appear to be
paying off. The population,
which declined by 15,000 in the
early nineties, has edged up by
2,000 in the last two years and is
expected to increase by another
3,000 by the turn of the century.
The Labor Market Area has also
regained nearly a fifth of the
22,500 jobs lost during the last
recession and projections indicate
this trend will continue. The
unemployment rate, which was in
the double digits in both the City
and Area, is down to four percent
in the Area and six percent in the
City. The high cost of living in
lower Fairfield County is driving
more and more people to residences
in the Bridgeport area,
where median housing prices are
$200,000 lower. The area's
proximity to New York and the
ease of getting there by either
Interstate Route 95, the Merritt
Parkway or Metro North Railroad
will continue to be a drawing
point.
To be sure, there are still
many obstacles to overcome: the
City of Bridgeport has lost 20,000
jobs in the last eight years alone.
Nevertheless, the population is
now growing, tourism is increasing
and unemployment is going
down, and the Bridgeport area is
poised for even stronger economic
growth.
On June 18, 1998, a 71-
member trade delegation
from Shandong Province,
China's third largest province,
arrived in Connecticut. Governor
Li Chunting met Governor
Rowland and signed a trade
agreement to encourage cooperation
and partnerships between
businesses in Connecticut
and Shandong.
n
International sales are increasingly
important for Connecticut
companies. Recent data show
Connecticutís exports to China
totaled more than $69 million in
1997. Export trade with key
Asian nations amounted to
$1.76 billion in 1997, or 23% of
the Connecticut total.
A few examples are ABB's
(Combustion Engineering) power
plants in Shandong. China's
plans to build 150 nuclear
power plants could result in
more jobs in Connecticut.
Aetna, the second non-Chinese
insurance company licensed to
do business in China, could
have significant growth opportunities
since Shandong is expected
to be a leading market.
Loctite (Hartford) has recently
doubled the size of its plant in
Yantai, resulting in increased
sales to Asia; and Carvel
(Farmington) has a string of 14
ice cream stores in Shandong.
The DECD Industry Cluster/
International Division has trade
representatives to provide
market counseling, perform
agent/distributor searches, and
promote Connecticutís trade in
Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil,
as well as China, and soon
Israel.
Commissioner James F.
Abromaitis of the Connecticut
Department of Economic and
Community Development announced
that Connecticut communities
authorized 1,051 new
housing units in May 1998, a 25.7
percent increase compared to May
of 1997 when 836 were authorized.
The Department further indicated
that the 1,051 units permitted
in May 1998 represent an
increase of 13.3 percent from the
928 units permitted in April 1998.
The year-to-date permits are up
10.2 percent, from 3,730 through
May 1997, to 4,110 through May
1998.
"The housing sector continues
to demonstrate strong growth,"
Abromaitis said. "A 10.2 percent
increase through the first five
months of 1998 is a solid indicator
of the economy's overall strength."
Reports from municipal officials
throughout the state indicate that
Hartford County with 106.3
percent showed the greatest
percentage increase in May compared
to the same month a year
ago. Windham County followed
with a 28.6 percent increase.
Hartford County documented
the largest number of new, authorized
units in May with 330.
Fairfield County followed with 243
units and New Haven County had
183 units. Manchester led all
Connecticut communities with 152
units, followed by Danbury with 61
and Newtown with 33.
Just when the pilot announces
that blue skies seem to extend forever, those
darned dismal scientists (economists)
hoist the warning flag that
stormy weather may be on the
horizon. Well, in truth, warning
flags may be flying from the
Connecticut coincident and leading
employment indexes. Then, again,
the warning may be a false alarm
and not a sign of bad things to
come. The Connecticut coincident
employment index, a barometer of
current employment activity, has
not moved above its January 1998
peak so far this year. It now falls
just below this peak with the
release of (preliminary) April data.
Connecticut's leading employment
index, a barometer of future
employment activity, has experienced
small declines in the last
two months after reaching its peak
in the current expansion in February.
As a rule, three consecutive
declines in the leading index must
occur before forecasters consider it
a negative signal; something that
the leading index has not yet
delivered.
In the Spring 1998 issue of The
Connecticut Economy, editor-inchief
Will McEachern cites the
shrinking labor force as a possible
threat to the current expansion.
Connecticut's economy will have
some difficulty maintaining growing
employment with a flat population
and a declining labor force.
The declining labor force reflects in
large part the declining participation
rate by males during the
1990s in Connecticut. When push
comes to shove, either population
will have to start growing, male
labor force participation will have
to increase, or employment growth
will stop. If employment growth
halts, then we may face a period of
slow growth, or even a downturn,
unless rising labor productivity
(more product per labor input)
rides to the rescue.
While we share McEachern's
concern about the sustainability of
the current expansion, given the
trends in the labor market, we also
share his view that it is much too
early to call an end to the current
expansion. Several more month's
data will provide important information.
We eagerly await future data releases.
In summary, the coincident
employment index rose from 87.7
in April 1997 to 94.4 in April 1998.
All four index components continue
to point in a positive direction
on a year-over-year basis with
higher nonfarm employment,
higher total employment, a lower
insured unemployment rate, and a
lower total unemployment rate.
The leading employment index
rose from 89.7 in April 1997 to
90.2 in April 1998. Three index
components sent positive signals
on a year-over-year basis with a
lower short-duration (less than 15
weeks) unemployment rate, lower
initial claims for unemployment
insurance, and higher Hartford
help-wanted advertising. Two
components sent negative signals
with lower total housing permits
and a shorter average workweek of
manufacturing production
workers.
SOURCE: Connecticut Center for or Economic Analysis, University of Connecticut.
Developed by Pami Dua [(203) 461-6644, Stamford Campus (on leave)] and Stephen M. Miller [(860) 486-3853, Storrs Campus]. Kathryn E. Parr (860) 486-0485, Storrs Campus provided research support.
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