Economy of Connecticut

[2] There is a large disparity in incomes throughout the state; Connecticut was tied with California and Massachusetts for the second highest (after New York's 0.52) Gini coefficient, at 0.50, as of 2020.

[3] According to a 2018 study by Phoenix Marketing International, Connecticut had the third-largest number of millionaires per capita in the United States, with a ratio of 7.75%.

The highest unemployment rate during that period occurred in November and December 2010 at 9.3%,[6] but economists expected record new levels of layoffs as a result of business closures in the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

[7] Finance and insurance is Connecticut's largest industry, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, generating 16.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009.

[13] Manufacturing is the third biggest industry at 11.9% of GDP and dominated by Hartford-based United Technologies Corporation (UTC), which employs more than 22,000 people in Connecticut.

[14] Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft operates Connecticut's single largest manufacturing plant in Stratford,[13] where it makes helicopters.

[13] Connecticut historically was a center of gun manufacturing, and four gun-manufacturing firms continued to operate in the state as of December 2012[update], employing 2,000 people: Colt, Stag, Ruger, and Mossberg.

Connecticut's agricultural sector employed about 12,000 people as of 2010[update], with more than a quarter of that number involved in nursery stock production.

In the 19th century, oystering boomed in New Haven, Bridgeport, and Norwalk and achieved modest success in neighboring towns.

From before World War 1 until 1969, Connecticut laws restricted the right to harvest oysters in state-owned beds to sailing vessels.

The new tax policy drew investment firms to Connecticut; as of 2014[update], Fairfield County was home to the headquarters for 14 of the 200 largest hedge funds in the world.