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Industrial Jobs Outlook for CT

4-29Based on several recent reports from last quarter, it’s not looking like 2016 will be the year for tremendously strong job growth in the industrial/manufacturing sector. That projection applies not only to CT and the U.S. as a whole, but to countries around the world. The good news, though, is there are promising outlooks for many occupations, which we’ll cover below.

First let’s take a look at the latest employment stats:

March Employment Numbers for CT

Connecticut’s unemployment rate rose slightly in March to 5.7%, according to the CT Dept of Labor’s (DOL) most recent jobs report. Of all the New England states, CT’s rate is the highest and above the current U.S. average of 5%. For comparison, here are rates for the rest of New England – Rhode Island (5.4%), Massachusetts (4.4%), Maine (3.6%), Vermont (3.4%) and New Hampshire (2.6%).

In March, there were about 160,000 employees on payroll for CT manufacturing jobs – this is comparable to March 2015 numbers.

Some other interesting CT and national manufacturing stats from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) include:

  • CT manufacturers make up 10.7% of the total output in the state
  • CT’s total output from manufacturing was $27.03 billion in 2014. Nationally, manufacturers contributed $2.17 trillion to the U.S. economy.
  • Manufacturers employ 9.5% of the CT workforce. This number is in-line with national statistics – there are currently 12.23 million manufacturing workers in the U.S., accounting for 9% of the workforce.
  • The vast majority of U.S. manufacturers are very small in employee size. With over 250,000 companies representing the industry, all but about 3,000 of them have less than 500 employees – and 75% of those companies have fewer than 20 employees.
  • Within the next 10 years, 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will likely be needed and 2 million will likely go unfilled because of the skills gap.

Manufacturing Jobs in CT – Where are They?

So, what are the opportunities when it comes to landing a manufacturing job in CT? First, let’s take a step back and look at how the state categorizes manufacturing jobs.

According to the CT DOL and its CT Career Resource Network (CCRM), CT has 16 “career clusters” – like health sciences, finance, human services, education & training and of course manufacturing (you can check out the complete list here). Manufacturing jobs are considered “careers in planning, managing and performing the processing of materials into intermediate or final products, and related professional and technical support activities.” DOL says these careers can range from cabinetmakers to dental lab technicians.

Here’s a rundown of some of the CT careers that are projected to have ‘faster than average’ or ‘much faster than average’ growth through 2022:

  • Chemical equipment operators and tenders
  • Machinery maintenance workers
  • Transportation equipment painters
  • CNC programmers and operators
  • Industrial machinery mechanics
  • Medical equipment repairers
  • Millwrights
  • Machine setters/operators for welding/soldering/brazing

Did you know that A.R. Mazzotta has an Industrial Service Group? Our staffing specialists in this group understand what it takes to successfully hire talent in many of CT’s unique manufacturing markets. Contact A.R. Mazzotta to learn more. You can also browse our CT jobs page for a shortlist of our current positions. We have many more available that aren’t listed on our website, so give us a call for more info.

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