Topline Connecticut is experiencing some of the best private sector job growth since the economic boom years of the late 1990s, signalling that Connecticut’s economic recovery is underway.

The private sector is leading this economic recovery. Between January 2011 and July of this year, the private sector added 40,800 jobs.

That’s the best job growth since the late 1990s, when the economy had been booming for years and wasn’t recovering from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

This private sector growth is driving income up and unemployment down.

• Since 2010, average income grew by 4.93 percent
• Unemployment fell by 1.2 percentage points from 9.3 to 8.1 percent

Businesses operating as part of the Small Business Express program are contributing to the state’s job growth success.

According to the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development the initiative has allowed the state to create or retain more than 10,000 jobs.