Connecticut's state employee unions announced Thursday that rank-and-file members ratified a labor savings and concessions agreement, giving Gov. Dannel P. Malloy the go-ahead to rescind thousands of layoff notices and forgo additional state budget cuts.

Unionized state employees are voicing optimism that a second attempt at achieving labor savings will succeed as they finishing voting on a clarified agreement that will stop thousands of layoffs and help balance Connecticut's budget without deep spending cuts.

States with high numbers of federal workers or contractors, large military presences or generous Medicaid programs for the needy are among the most vulnerable from Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of U.S. government debt.

Given a second chance to ratify a labor deal that could stop thousands of state employee layoffs, union leaders in Connecticut are turning to rank-and-file members to help persuade their colleagues to vote "yes" this time.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday that he has directed his chief labor negotiator to reach out to the state employee union leaders and learn how they plan to change their process for approving a labor savings and concessions agreement.

Connecticut administrators had not yet formally agreed Wednesday to a request from state employee union leaders to restart talks after a union savings and concessions deal failed.

State employee union leaders on Tuesday asked Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to "reconvene discussions" with them to see what can be done to quickly stop thousands of looming layoffs.

When Connecticut lawmakers return to the state Capitol on Thursday, not only will they be asked to grant Gov. Dannel P. Malloy greater budget-cutting authority, now that state employees have defeated a labor-savings and concessions deal, but to also scale back some of the workers' future benefit