UConn Economists Warn Of Unsteady Future For CT

Economists at UConn are warning that Connecticut could potentially begin to lose jobs once again, if the recovery does not gather pace. The latest economic outlook says new data proves the recession was even worse than first thought. WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports.

The report comes from the Center for Economic Analysis at UConn, and its authors say new data coming out of the Fed, specifically forecasts for future growth, give great cause for concern. If growth in GDP continues to be below 2%, even the weak recovery Connecticut has experienced so far may fizzle out, and the state could see job losses again by next year.

Senior Research Fellow Peter Gunther says there is actually evidence that the state has been going in the right direction in shifting away from low-wage jobs, but the state’s fabled quality of life could still be under threat.

“In order to maintain that quality of life, Connecticut needs to continue to generate above average wage jobs. There are a couple of indicators that that is indeed happening, but it also implies that Connecticut needs to have pretty significant growth in both the national gross domestic product and its own to continue to generate those higher income jobs.”

The report stresses that despite the improvement in the quality of jobs in the state, there has been no net creation of employment in Connecticut in twenty years. The state also faces an uphill battle, according to the researchers, because of its poor systems for tracking economic data, which leave policymakers unable to respond meaningfully to the challenges facing the state.

For WNPR, I'm Harriet Jones.