Danbury Connecticut has been named by Money Magazine in the late 2000s as one of the Top 25 Best Small Cities for Jobs and Business in America. Since 1988, the city has been on one or another of Money’s “Best” lists Danbury is in Fairfield County with a population of about 79,000 people. It was named for the city in England from which its original settlers traveled. That was Danbury in Essex, England.

Danbury has also been called Hat City circa 1800 - 1930, because it was the hub for hat design and manufacture, especially of extravagant women's hats, Danbury supplied upwards of a quarter of the total hats in America at one point. In the early 1900s, the hat making industry survived a brouhaha that involved labor unions and the non-union status of one of the largest hat factories in Danbury. The factory sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act and won. Today the name of the Danbury Mad Hatters hockey club indirectly commemorates that case.

Settled by English immigrants in 1685, the town consisted of only 8 families at first. They built homes in the flat land called Pahquioque by Munsee and Quiripi Nations of Indigenous People in the southeast corner of Connecticut. The name meant “cleared, open land.” It is reported that four men purchased the land from the Native American, rather than confiscating it. The white men renamed their land Swampfield, but their community government decided on Danbury in just a year or so. Swampfield was not a very inviting name.

During the American Revolution, the city was burned down by the British, but rebuilt by the Danbury residents. As elsewhere in the Northeastern US, the railroad industry grew in response to the demand for transportation during the Civil War and thereafter for reasons of commerce. A local railroad museum commemorates that mode of transport.

From the famous local case:

Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274 (1908), 235 U.S. 522 (1915)

In 1902, hatter Dietrich Loewe refused to recognize the hatters’ union in his hat manufacturing plant. The majority of his workers then struck for high union wages.

Mr. Loewe hired a crew of non-union workers ("scabs"), resulting in a boycott organized by his former employees.

The boycott spread to most or all of the states that featured Loewe hat plants or shops that sold them.

Loewe sued for 6 years in US Federal courts, ending up in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908. The highest court found in favor of Loewe and 7 years later, upheld a lower court's ruling to allow damages.

Since the striking workers felt they would lose their homes in the suit, the hatters union spnsored "Hatters’ Day" to collect one hour’s pay from each of its members to pay the damages.

• Danbury Hospital - By far the largest single employer in the Greater Danbury Area. Located conveniently on Bus Route 1.
• Praxair Inc. - A Fortune 500 company that deals in industrial gases worldwide for electronics, metal fabrication, health care (oxygen, other) and food processing. Sponsor of several departments at Danbury Hospital.
• Western Connecticut State University - Bus Routes 4 and 7.
• Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. – HQ for design, manufacture, and distribution of this famous name brand of furniture, rugs, lamps, draperies and other décor wordwide.
• Scholastic Library Publishing Inc. - Educational, children's, and reference books, including the first encyclopedia in the USA - Encyclopedia Americana - and several other important products.
• Danbury School District
• Cartus - Corporate/business relocation services.
• Boehringer Ingelheim - Two locations for the Pharmaceutical Industry
• Pitney Bowes Inc. - Mail sorting and tracking
• GE Capital VFS - Vendor financial services
• Goodrich Corporation - Electro-optical and space systems

The largest sector of the Danbury economy is the Healthcare Industry. Job openings includes careers in health realted Information Technology (IT) as well as nursing, practitioners, aides, allied health professions, and support staff.

1. Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts
2. Database Administrators
3. Systems Software Engineers
4. Network and Computer Systems Administrators
5. Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors
6. Special Education Teachers for Preschool, Kindergarten, and all Elemtary grades
7. Property, Real Estate, and Community Association Managers
8. Radiologic Technologists and Technicians
9. Physical Therapists
10. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers

Additional jobs that are growing rapidly in openings:

• Pharmacists
• Registered Nurses (RNs)
• Gaming Dealers (gambling)
• Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Attendants

Danbury Hospital is important as the largest employer in the city, but also for its proactive stance on Cardiovascular Disease and its prevention and effective treatments. Its Praxair Regional Heart and Vascular Center offers the most cutting edge cardiovascular care in Southeastern Connecticut with both open heart surgery and coronary angioplasty.

This hospital also offers a complete Weight Loss Surgery Center, a Center for Advanced Orthopedic Care, a Family Birth Center, The Praxair Cancer Center, and other surgical specialties. In addition, the cancer center is connected to a number of clinical trials that study cancer and cancer treatments, and a specialized cancer care coordinator to endure the best treatmetn plans possible. The cancer center enjoys over three decades of a good reputation for effective healing among its patients.

A large number of informative pages appear at the hospital website, with interactive pages that aid in managing one's health. Job openings are listed in the side bar at Danbury Hospital and Registered Nurse (RN) Open Houses are held to recuit workers in that specific career track as well.

Another major employer in Danbury, this university was founded in 1903 and has several schools: the Ancell School of Business, Arts & Sciences, School of Visual and Performing Arts, School of Professional Studies, and the Graduate School, all offered between two campuses in the middle of town and on the west side.

WCSU, or WestConn, is the only facililty of higher education int he state to offer a degree in meteorology and it features its own Weather Center. In addtion, each campus has an astonomical observatory and/or planetarium or astrophysical studies camera.

Athletics are available for both men and women and the teams are known as the WestConn Colonials.

For more information, visit the website at: Western Connecticut State University.

ADDITIONAL FACILITIES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

• German Language School of Danbury
• Paul Mitchell the School
• Danbury Nurses Aid Training 

The largest lake in Connecticut, CandlewoodLake, is manmade and operates as a hydroelectric power facility by the Connecticut Light and Power Company. Thus, elctricity is generated by water instead of coal in this area.

In addition to clean electricity, Danbury is home to FuelCell Energy, Inc. a major manufacturer of ultra-clean power plants that use renewable fuels for commercial, givernment, industrial, and utility clients.

• Danbury Westerners college baseball - Rogers Park.
• Danbury Mad Hatters hockey - Danbury Ice Arena.
• New England Stars hockey – Danbury Ice Arena
• Hat City Dubs - European Car Club
• Richter Park Golf Course