Expand Access to Employment

Connecticut’s workforce includes individuals from many walks of life — from veterans transitioning to civilian employment, to individuals re-entering the workforce after incarceration, to young people exploring nontraditional career paths, and to individuals pursuing roles in new industries.

To ensure long-term growth and prosperity, we are taking a strategic, inclusive approach to workforce development, focusing on expanding opportunities and eliminating barriers to education and employment.

To expand opportunity and access for all individuals, we are using a multifaceted approach that includes:

• Identifying and addressing obstacles – including access to affordable and quality childcare, transportation, housing and more – that prevent individuals from accessing education, training, and employment;
• Centralizing access to information about career pathways, training, and job opportunities to enable individuals to make informed decisions about their professional futures; and
• Supporting adult learners in building the basic skills necessary to pursue their chosen training and career paths.

In 2023, Governor Lamont established the Blue Ribbon Panel on ChildCare through Executive Order, tasking it with developing a 5-year strategic plan for a child care system that serves families, providers, and Connecticut’s economy effectively.

The resulting plan outlines four goals to strengthen the childhood education infrastructure: improve workforce and quality; increase access to care that meets a wide range of family needs; develop agile and responsive systems; and build a well-funded sustainable funding structure.

In January 2025, the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices launched the Service to Career Pathways Policy Academy.

The Office of the Governor and the Office of Workforce Strategy were selected to participate and partnered with Connecticut Council of Municipalities (CCM), Domus Kids (DOMUS), and Our Piece of the Pie (OPP) to create a municipal toolkit supporting opportunity youth interested in public service careers.

The toolkit provides a six-step roadmap to help towns build and scale human-centered, strengths-based programs that guide young people from service and early work experiences into sustainable public service careers.

Career Pathways Toolkit

Consider this scenario: A single parent with two children receives a $0.10 hourly wage increase—approximately $200 annually. This seemingly positive step forward triggers an unexpected financial crisis as her income now exceeds the threshold for child care subsidies, resulting in a devastating $9,000 loss in essential support. Not only do these “benefits cliffs” cause direct financial harm to families, but the complexity of state and federal public assistance eligibility creates uncertainty as to when these cliffs may happen.

To address this challenge, Connecticut’s Two Generational Initiative (2Gen) partnered with the Atlanta Federal Reserve to build the Career Ladder Identifier and Financial Forecaster (CLIFF), a dashboard that calculates when benefits cliffs will occur for families based on their household composition and income. Using CLIFF, career counselors are working with families to help them understand the impact that a career change may have on their eligibility for public assistance — reducing the uncertainty of a career change.

To provide job seekers with easy access to data and resources, the State launched a new portal to assist Connecticut residents—and those seeking to become Connecticut residents—in their job search. Through Jobs.CT.gov, job seekers can access comprehensive employment resources, free and low-cost training opportunities, and personalized career development tools. Employers benefit from resources to help hire, train, and retain talent.