Wilton’s unemployment rate, according to the state, is just under 8 percent. That is an estimate, since the state data is incomplete, but the labor force number is not far off from where it was in January.
Getty ImagesWILTON — Although the state admits its unemployment figures for July continue to be underestimated, they do not appear to be as egregious as previous months.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wilton had an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent for July, according to data released Aug. 21. This is based on a workforce of 8,246 people, of whom 7,597 were employed. The number of unemployed was reported as 649.
The unemployment numbers for January show a labor fore of 8,476, of which 8,163 people were employed. There were 313 people out of work for an unemployment rate of 3.7 percent. That held steady for February, and then the rate dropped to 2.7 percent in March, before the effect of the coronavirus pandemic was felt.
As the state received a flood of unemployment insurance claims in April, Wilton’s total labor force number, as reported by the state dropped by nearly 1,000. That artificially reduced the unemployment rate to 5.3 percent, as businesses were closed and workers were either laid off or furloughed.
Wilton’s labor force number slowly rose through May and June, perhaps as the state caught up with claims.
The number of unemployed people appears to match up with the number of unemployment claims that continue to be processed for Wilton. The most recent week for which the state reports complete data is July 19. For that week, the state processed 601 unemployment claims from Wilton residents. This is down from 675 for the week of May 31.
The incomplete data shows the number of processed claims continuing to decline to the week of Aug. 2 — 525 claims — but that number may change.
The number of new claims for the week of July 19 is 18, down one from the previous week. There were 33 new claims submitted the week of June 28.
Unemployment numbers for area towns in July were:
Darien — 6.9 percent.
New Canaan — 7.7 percent.
Ridgefield — 7.6 percent.
Westport — 7.5 percent.
The state unemployment rate for July was reported as 10.3 percent, with 198,500 people listed as unemployed.