Jobs For Connecticut Now

HARTFORD, Conn. — Students from three Connecticut cities will try to improve their science and technology skills by learning to build robots. About 75 high school sophomores from East Hartford, New Britain and Waterbury will build, program and test robots at the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford on Oct. 31. The students are part of a program of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. The project encourages underrepresented youth to excel in science, technology, engineering and math. Read More

For many of the women, the chemistry lab was a home away from home — a sorority for nerds, of sorts, that hints at the slow but steady shift in technical fields that have been traditionally filled with men. Rebecca Allred has fond memories of that lab at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She and her peers spent hours there. They worked into the night for their professor, Elizabeth Harbron, because they wanted to, blowing off steam by dancing to the soundtrack of “Mamma Mia” or taking a break on Fridays to play Putt-Putt golf together. Read More

The General Assembly’s special session that starts Wednesday is breeding optimism among local business leaders, but focusing on the right things is crucial to realizing the goal: job creation. Eastern Connecticut leaders applauded a “Reinventing Connecticut” document released by the Malloy administration and Assembly leaders last week, but the praise was not without some reservations. University of Connecticut economics professor Fred Carstensen sees tax credits aimed at new hires as creating only a “modest incentive.” More could be done with tax credits to boost business spending on plants and equipment, he said. Read More

A national nonprofit advocacy group has named Massachusetts tops in the nation when it comes to promoting energy efficiency.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy placed Massachusetts above California for the first time in rankings released Thursday.

The group pointed to Massachusetts programs designed to save energy and create jobs including the Green Communities Act of 2008, the Green Jobs Act and Global Warming Solutions Act. Read More

A national nonprofit advocacy group has named Massachusetts tops in the nation when it comes to promoting energy efficiency.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy placed Massachusetts above California for the first time in rankings released Thursday.

The group pointed to Massachusetts programs designed to save energy and create jobs including the Green Communities Act of 2008, the Green Jobs Act and Global Warming Solutions Act. Read More

Connecticut’s Labor Department reports the state unemployment rate dipped to 8.9 percent in September, falling below 9 percent for the first time in almost two years. The department reported Thursday that Connecticut gained 3,400 jobs during the month, mostly in the leisure and hospitality sectors. But the Department of Labor said while the state hopes to build on September’s numbers, they don’t represent a pattern. Read More

MA’s unemployment rate fell to 7.3 percent in September, but the state shed another 2,300 jobs last month and jobs fell more precipitously in August than previously reported, according to new data released Thursday by the Patrick administration. The numbers, drawn from two separate surveys, continue to point to a vexing trend for Massachusetts policymakers: while the unemployment rate remains well below the national rate of 9.1 percent, the state has now lost an estimated 12,800 jobs over the past two months, even as state leaders describe an economy emerging from recession at a faster clip than the rest of the country. Read More

Massachusetts ranks 10^th in the United States in solar-related jobs, with approximately three times as many jobs as there were a year ago, according to Environment Massachusetts, a citizen-based environmental advocacy group. The group says the data comes from an annual report by The Solar Foundation, a nonprofit solar education and research association, which quantifies current employment and projected growth of the solar workforce in the country. The report says nearly half of solar employers plan to increase their workforces in the next year, while only 2 percent expect to cut their staffs. Read More