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35 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 4, 2021 This presentation is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be relied upon as investment advice or the basis for making any investment decisions. The views and opinions expressed may not be those of UBS Financial Services Inc. UBS Financial Services Inc. does not verify and does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information presented. For more information, please review the PDF document at ubs.com/relationshipsummary. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers investment advisory services in its capacity as an SEC-registered investment adviser and brokerage services in its capacity as an SEC-registered broker- dealer. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business, that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information, please review the PDF document at ubs.com /relationshipsummary. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP ® and Certified finanCial Planner TM in the US. For designation disclosures, visit ubs.com/us/en/designation-disclosures. © UBS 2021. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. CJ-UBS-307789415 Exp.: 09/30/2022 Have you considered an ESOP for your business? Please join us on October 19 for a webinar on Tax Reform & ESOPs, featuring Leslie Lauer and Rebecca Glasgow of The ESOP Group at UBS. They will provide an overview of Employee Stock Ownership Plans, including the structure, mechanics and benefits – to selling shareholders, employees, and the business itself. Shane Lieberman of the US Office of Public Policy at UBS will also share his perspectives on tax reform and other issues impacting UBS and their clients. Speakers Leslie A. Lauer, CFP ® , CEPA ® , ChFC ® Managing Director–Wealth Management Rebecca T. Glasgow, CFP ® , CEPA ® Senior Vice President–Wealth Management Guest Speaker Shane Lieberman Executive Director, Federal Affairs Manager US Office of Public Policy Hosted by David Fasi CFP ® , CEPA ® Vice President–Wealth Management Fasi Wealth Management UBS Financial Services Inc. One State Street, Hartford, CT 06103 Tuesday, October 19 9:00 – 10:15 a.m. EDT RSVP by October 12 to: david.fasi@ubs.com 860-275-8006 OR scan QR code here: Tax Reform and ESOPs Join us for a webinar on the benefits of ESOPs RSM US LLP is the U.S. member firm of RSM International, a global network of independent audit, tax and consulting firms. Visit rsmus.com /aboutus for more information regarding RSM US LLP and RSM International. Join us for a global meeting of the minds. PUT OUR MANUFACTURING INSIGHTS TO WORK FOR YOU. To make confident decisions about the future, middle market leaders need a different kind of advisor. One who starts by understanding where you want to go and then brings the ideas and insights of an experienced global team to help get you there. Experience the power of being understood. Experience RSM. rsmus.com/manufacturing OPINION & COMMENTARY Greg Bordonaro hasn't experienced a pandemic in a century's time. To try to get a better understanding of where the state's economic recovery is, I recently talked with Don Klepper- Smith, one of the state's best- known economists, who was a top economic advisor to former Gov. M. Jodi Rell. He's also consulted for a few local Connecticut banks. Klepper-Smith said there's been a lot of spin when it comes to talking about the recovery. First, let's put into context the state's overall performance since the pandemic reached our shores in full force in March 2020. Connecticut has now recovered 201,400, or 69%, of the 292,400 jobs it lost during the lockdowns of March and April 2020, according to labor officials. Our unemployment rate stands at 7.2% vs. the national average of 5.2%. Connecticut is among just a handful of states, including California and New York, with jobless rates over 7%. On the brighter side, Connecticut has added jobs for eight consecutive months, including the addition of 34,500 positions in all of 2021. "There is a good-news, bad-news story here," Klepper-Smith told me. "The good news is that we are off the lows. At one point we were down almost 300,000 jobs. But when you" take into account that Connecticut has still not fully recovered jobs lost during the Great Recession, the long- term economic trend lines are still cause for concern. The reality is, Connecticut still has 115,000 fewer jobs today than it did in March 2008 — right before the Great Recession took hold in the state — and it could take another five to 10 years to recover all those jobs, Klepper-Smith said. That means it may not be until 2030 when Connecticut has the same number of jobs it did back in early 2008. And the state won't fully regain jobs lost during the pandemic until sometime next year, or even 2023, Klepper-Smith said. "Over the last 10 years the U.S. economy has posted significant job gains and real GDP growth at the time when Connecticut has been down," Klepper-Smith said. "So, for all intents and purposes the Connecticut economy has been moving sideways." Klepper-Smith said we also shouldn't put too much stock in the September jobs numbers and it may be misguided to think that everyone is going to rush back to the labor market. He said the labor shortage is real and there is intense competition for top talent. He also suspects that some of the open positions are just employers fishing for potential hires in the future. Companies during the pandemic have also ramped up investment in technology, which will have a long-term effect on the labor market. He points to a PwC study, which said 30% of jobs in today's economy are at potential risk of automation by the mid-2030s due to advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and other technological changes. So what's all this mean? I do think we should pay attention to the jobs numbers over the next few months. At the very least, they may help us figure out if the extended unemployment benefits did keep a significant number of people out of the workforce. If that's not the case, and large numbers of jobs remain unfilled, then the private and public sectors will need to work harder to address the issue. Meantime, Lamont has been touting the state's recent job gains, even coining the phrase "Connecticut comeback." You can expect to hear more of that tagline in the months ahead, particularly as Lamont prepares for re-election in 2022. (He hasn't formally declared he's running again, but most observers say he will.) I do think Connecticut has positive near-term growth potential, thanks to the state's ability to get the pandemic under control and some in-migration, particularly of New Yorkers, during the pandemic. We need that to translate into more business development. The best way to do that is to show investors and business decision makers that Connecticut is a financially stable and welcoming place to park capital. And slogans alone won't make that happen. The state must press its advantages — highly-educated workforce, strong quality of life, etc. — over the next 12 months. Lamont should declare that one of his top priorities during the 2022 legislative session will be to improve the business environment and lay out a five-year plan on changes he would make to tax, regulatory, spending and other policies to make Connecticut more competitive. Everyone in this state, particularly the business community, would love to tout a Connecticut comeback. We aren't there yet. There's still plenty of work to be done.