A Connecticut jobs report released Friday brought widely divergent reactions.

The report released by the state Department of Labor showed a more than 10,000 decline in Connecticut employment in January, which prompted a leading business group to brand it as "some of the worst news we've seen in quite some time."

But the report also noted that jobs counters had revised last year's employment totals in Connecticut upward by more than 12,000 from what had been previously reported, allowing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to trumpet state job growth in 2013 as "substantially beyond expectation."

Meanwhile, the Norwich-New London labor market continues to show signs of stress, recording a decline of 800 jobs between December and January as well as a 1,700 slump compared with the same month last year. The region had the highest year-over-year decline in jobs of any labor market in the state during January, and at 8 percent also has one of Connecticut's highest unemployment rates.
http://www.theday.com/article/20140314/NWS12/140319763/1017