The report, released Tuesday by the New England Economic Partnership, said the region had lost about 346,000 jobs since the beginning of 2008. That number is expected to top 400,000 before the end of the decline.

Among sectors showing “positive signs” is residential real estate, the researchers wrote in the Fed’s eight-times-a-year summary of economic conditions, commonly known as the Beige Book.

Among the report’s highlights, broken down by sector for New England:

• “Wage increases are very modest or zero; large layoffs appear to have ended, but hiring remains very limited.”

• “Retailers … report mixed sales results for the early fall months, with year-over-year percentage changes in same-store sales ranging from negative to positive mid single-digits.”

Retailers whose sales have been soft are worried about the potential of winter heating costs to further depress demand, the researchers wrote.

• “Tourism activity in Boston is weak, although the rate of decline has slowed,” the researchers wrote. “Business travel is especially soft, and one contact worries that decreased corporate travel and spending will become ‘the new norm.’ ”

“Folks that would never have thought to work in retail before are coming out of the woodwork,” Steve Krom a vice president of AT&T New England.

Since the recession began in December 2007, 7.2 million jobs have been lost and the unemployment rate has doubled, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

“I think the worst is over, but that doesn’t mean you go straight up from here. I think it is going be a long slog to get us out of this hole we’ve dug ourselves into,” said David Wyss, chief economist with Standard & Poor’s.

According to a new survey, only 40 percent of employers are planning to rehire former workers. So new jobs will need to come from new industries.

It’s a recession, so few things are booming and no city is exactly thriving. But within the tech industry, some cities clearly have more job opportunities than others. Although tech employment overall has suffered along with the rest of the economy, there’s been variance: High-tech manufacturing jobs have been shed more rapidly, while IT service jobs—in engineering and in software services, for instance—have fared better. And one future bright spot: Over the next three years, the federal government is projected to make 11,500 new hires in information technology jobs, according to a report by the Partnership for Public Service.

Boston
Boston has become a hotbed of high-tech innovation in fields such as biotech and software, says Robert Buderi, founder and chief executive of Xconomy. Universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University are a powerful draw for employers—and highly fertile ground for start-ups. Last year, when Microsoft opened its first East Coast research lab in nearby Cambridge, the company touted its ability to reach the “large community of scientists in New England, notably the faculty and students at the many premier academic institutions in the vicinity.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that programmers and software applications engineers in nearby Lowell, Mass., rank among the highest paid in all U.S. metro areas. Silicon Valley may once have been a necessary career stop, but today, tech workers can spend their entire careers in New England, Buderi says.

Unfortunately, we sometimes forget why Labor day was was originally created. Check out the Department of Labor website and you will see clearly spelled out that “Labor Day was a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” There’s also some interesting background on the creation of Labor Day, which has been around for more than 100 years.

Which brings us to this point. Despite the recent economic challenges our nation has endured, this Labor Day should be a major reminder to local policymakers that it is even more important than ever to get New England’s residents who have lost their jobs off the unemployment line. Our local policymakers need to do everything possible to encourage investment from businesses in this community and make our environment more attractive for other companies to come to the region. We need to find new incentives that will help bring new business to New England and help keep the doors open of those businesses that already exist here. Labor Day should be about celebrating the jobs we have and the hard work our residents put into them each day. When the nation is experiencing some of the highest unemployment rates in decades, it may be difficult to truly celebrate that meaning of Labor Day this year, but hopefully a year from now we will have a brighter and more optimistic picture to enjoy during the long weekend.

Promoting higher returns on innovation makes the state more appealing for new and existing businesses to make the commitments to local facilities that may provide new jobs and opportunities for residents. Policymakers can provide incentives for businesses to launch new products and services in Connecticut.”

Matthew Nemerson is president and CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council, E-mail: mnemerson@ct.org. Paul Moran is executive director of Jobs for New England Now, E-mail: paul@jobsfornewenglandnow.org.