Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 27, 2025 7 CT employers warned of challenging demographic trends C onnecticut employers need to sharpen their hiring practices in the face of challenging demographic trends, according to Jack Mahoney, head of revenue and growth finance at the employment ad platform Indeed. Mahoney recently spoke at an economic summit hosted in Hartford by the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. "It is estimated that by starting next year, the U.S. labor force partic- ipation rate will start to decline," he told the assembled business crowd. "And this demographic issue is not unique to the United States or Connecticut. This is fairly consistent across the globe." Stamford-based Indeed employs around 700 people in Connecticut, and last year signed a 10-year lease for a new co-headquarters office in Stamford. The company will move into the new location at The Link on Elm Street in December. Indeed's data shows that both the number of available positions and job seekers declined in Connecticut in 2024. Jobs advertised on Indeed in November 2024 were 29% lower than their high point in January 2023, while job seekers were down 35%. However, Mahoney said that in the short term, open positions did rebound slightly in the second half of 2024, and currently, job posting growth in Connecticut is outpacing that of Massachusetts and New York, even as the state has a slightly lower unemployment rate. There are currently nine job seekers for every open job in Connecticut. On an industry level, Connecticut saw the biggest increase in open positions last year in the dental and real estate professions, according to Indeed. The biggest declines, which were driven by a few large employers, came in mechanical engineering and information design. Aviation and civil engineering roles became more challenging to fill, with fewer job seekers than the number of open positions, according to Indeed. What's Trending For more than 80 years, Borghesi Building & Engineering Co., Inc. has provided quality and reliability with design and energy efficient construction. 860.482.7613 | BorghesiBuilding.com 2155 East Main Street, Torrington, Connecticut 06790 With an attractive design, it presents to your customers a comfortable relaxing environment to help promote sales. When quality finishes and an attractive functional interior are required, our fine craftsmen provide the ultimate details. PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: WESTFIELD BANK Building Ideas That Work... Building Ideas That Work... Check out our new website! © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing ™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. New law firm eyes 'aggressive growth' in Connecticut By Harriet Jones hjones@hartfordbusiness.com A newly formed law firm, Cohen Vaughan LLP, has established a Connecticut presence and is looking for "aggressive growth" in the state. Philadelphia-headquartered Cohen Vaughan LLP was founded by Richard J. Cohen along with nine founding part- ners, including Stam- ford-based Jeffrey J. Cunningham. The founders say their intention is to build a trial and litigation firm with the scale and resources to serve large corporations and insurers, with a particular focus on construction and crane law, professional liability, direc- tors and officers liability, employment counseling and litigation and govern- ment liability, among other areas. Cunningham will serve as the firm's general counsel. He comes to Cohen Vaughan from MGC and previously Goldberg Segalla. He defends profes- sional liability cases on behalf of lawyers, law firms and other profes- sionals, and also serves as outside general counsel to several small and midsized law firms. Cunningham will head up Cohen Vaughan's Stamford office, at 112 Prospect St. "We have a lot of Connecticut contacts in the insurance industry," Cunningham said. " So, I think we'll naturally develop those relationships, and then I look to expand to law firms in Connecticut." He sees professional liability as the core market for the firm, but is looking to generate business in other areas. "We have construction defect attorneys, we have premises liability, general liability, insurance coverage attorneys," Cunningham said. " So, given the insurance connection in Connecticut, I think we'll see a lot of that." Cunningham says he's looking for "aggressive growth" in terms of attracting Connecticut-based lawyers to the firm within the first year of operations. The firm said it launched nation- wide this month with 75 attorneys in 18 offices in seven states. Jeffrey J. Cunningham Jack Mahoney

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