Jobs For Connecticut Now

Bay Staters are a cynical bunch, but for understandable reasons. A new survey of Massachusetts residents by the Siena Research Institute, underwritten by First Niagara Bank, found people are deeply doubtful about the economic future as they struggle to make ends meet. The survey is the first part of a larger study of economic confidence in Massachusetts and Connecticut, said the research institute, which is based out of Siena College in New York. Read More

New Hampshire is moving into the next phase of a government-backed program to help spread broadband throughout the state, which will bring fiber-optic connections to homes in parts of the Monadnock region that once had trouble getting dial-up access.

This project, called Network New Hampshire Now, is designed to bring high-speed Internet to under-served parts of the state by June 30, 2013, which is quite fast considering its size.

One main reason it isn’t happening faster? Utility poles.

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Portrayals of the Occupy Wall Street movement didn’t just focus on the divide between the haves and the have-nots, the 1 percent and the 99 percent. The mainstream media also occupied us with other juxtapositions as the story unfolded: the unkempt and the well-dressed, the chaotic and the even-keeled, the loony left and the level-headed right, the intriguing and the downright boring. Read More

The Economic Assistance Coordinating Council (EACC) today approved 14 projects for participation in the Economic Development Incentive Program (EDIP). The projects will create over 719 new jobs and retain 2,912 existing jobs, in addition to leveraging over $80 million in private investment and supporting construction projects across the Commonwealth, in Canton. Read More

Braintree saw its unemployment rate decline from October to November, from 6.8 percent to 6.2 percent, a sign that hiring is on the rise in certain sectors of the economy on the South Shore and also continuing to improve overall.

The state’s labor department included local unemployment levels in a report Tuesday that also showed a slight drop in the unemployment rate for Massachusetts in November – from 7.3 percent to 7 percent. The national average in November was 8.6%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read More

INSTED, Conn. — Connecticut‘s junior senator is meeting with administrators, professors and business leaders to discuss the role of community colleges in helping boost states’ economies. Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s gathering Wednesday at Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Winsted is open to the public. It starts at noon in the school’s administrative office. Read More

Sales of single-family homes rose 13 percent in November, the fifth straight month of year-over-year growth, according to numbers released today by The Warren Group. Separate figures from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported the same gain in single-family home and condominium sales in November over the same month last year. Read More

The greaterWorcesterarea’s unemployment rate fell sharply from 7.3 percent to 6.8 percent in November as more than 600 people found jobs and the labor force shrank by nearly 1,000. The rate has fallen from 8.6 percent over the past year, according to the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Read More

BOSTON — The Pittsfield metropolitan area had one of the biggest percentage gains in jobs over the past year, up 3.7 percent, as the state has continued to see a drop in unemployment rates. Pittsfield’s jobless rate (seasonally unadjusted) has dropped from 8.1 percent last November to 6.6 percent, below the state jobless rate. Read More

Marlborough residents are receiving two early Christmas gifts from the state in terms of positive economic data. Officials from the Department of Revenue are announcing that that income tax rate will be lowered on Jan. 1, 2012. The rate, currently at 5.3 percent, will fall to 5.25 because state tax collections rose at a sufficient rate to trigger the reduction. Read More