Connecticut Ranked 2nd in Nation in Percentage of Workforce in Financial Industries

Connecticut ranks second in the nation in the percentage of its workforce in the financial industry, just behind Delaware and ahead of New York, Arizona and Nebraska, according to data compiled last month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Connecticut, 7.9 percent of the workforce is employed in financial industries, which includes finance, insurance and real estate. The data is collected as part of the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, a monthly survey of about 141,000 businesses and government agencies which provides detailed industry data on employment, hours and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls.

Delaware’s 10.3 percent tops the list of states, ahead of Connecticut’s 7.9 percent. The state’s percentage stayed between 8 percent and 9 percent for much of the past decade, dropping below 8 percent for the first time in May 2013. It has been at either 7.9 percent or 8 percent since then in the monthly reports. Between May 2010 and May 2014, Connecticut’s had the second largest decline among states in the percentage of workforce in the financial industry, with a reduction of 0.4 percent, exceeded only by Oregon’s 0.5 percent.

The states with the smallest percentage of workforce in the financial industries are Alaska, Vermont, Mississippi, Wyoming, West Virginia and Arkansas. Washington D.C. also has among the lowest percentages of population employed in the financial industries.

The U.S. average is 5.5 percent.

In terms of growth of the financial industry sector within a state’s workforce, the leading states are New Mexico, Montana,, West Virginia, and Delaware, among the13 states where there was an increase between May 2013 and May 2014. Connecticut was among 21 states were the percentage was virtually identical this year as compared with a year ago.