More Conn. employees are clocking in, but shifts still down sharply
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HARTFORD, Conn. (Hartford Business Journal) — As Connecticut businesses begin to reopen, shift work is returning, albeit more slowly than in most states.
That’s according to data from Massachusetts-based Kronos, which makes workforce management cloud software used by tens of thousands of employers.
Kronos’ weekly “U.S. Workforce Activity Reports,” which draws on data from 30,000 of the company’s U.S. customers and their 3.2 million workers, shows that Connecticut work shifts remained down by more than 50% in the second half of May compared with the week ended March 15, in which both President Donald Trump and Gov. Ned Lamont declared respective public health emergencies due to COVID-19.
The data mainly track workers who are paid hourly or must be physically present at a workplace to perform their jobs, Kronos said.
In the second to last week of May, Connecticut work shifts remained down by 50.7% from mid-March, the third highest deficit of any state. States that began to reopen their economies earlier than Connecticut, or those that never closed them down at all, have seen shift work rebound more sharply. For example, in Georgia, where businesses began reopening April 24 — shifts increased by 40% in the week ended May 24, Kronos data show.
In the final week of May, Connecticut was down 57.3% compared to mid-March, which was the second highest drop of any state. However, that week is seen as an outlier because it was impacted by anticipated work declines related to Memorial Day, Kronos said.
Shift work fell across the country for the first four weeks of the national health emergency, and began to recover in the fifth week, climbing 17% over the six weeks that followed.
Connecticut, which saw shift work tick up 2.6% during the week ended April 29, remained nearly 56% below normal levels at that time.
Kronos did not disclose exactly how many Connecticut customers are counted in its weekly reports, but indicated the volume is enough to provide a representative sample.
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