What a difference a month makes – new data from the Connecticut Department of Labor reported the state gained 4,000 net jobs in February, bringing employment to a pre-pandemic level of 1,700,800 seasonally adjusted. January’s reported job gain of 2,600 was revised up to a gain of 3,300.

“February’s payroll job numbers revealed a heathy increase of 4,000 jobs over January 2020,” said Andy Condon, director of the Office of Research at the Connecticut Department of Labor. “In addition, this was the sixth month in a row of payroll job growth. Unfortunately, with the impact of the spread of the COVID-19 virus we can expect payroll jobs to decline as a result of sharply increased layoffs and furloughs.”

In February, the number of the state’s unemployed residents was estimated at 72,600, seasonally adjusted, up 400 from the revised January level. This brought the February unemployment rate to 3.8%, seasonally adjusted, up one-tenth of a percentage point from the revised January level.

Private sector employment in February grew 3,300 (0.2%) to 1,463,00 jobs over the month in February, and was up by 12,400 (0.9%) seasonally adjusted jobs from one year earlier. The government supersector expanded by 700 jobs in February to a total of 237,500, and is up by 900 jobs (0.4%) from the previous year – however, the month’s job growth was primarily fueled by the work related to the U.S. Census.

Within Fairfield County, the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk corridor lost 1,000 jobs last month while the Danbury area was unchanged from January.