It appears snow wasn't the only thing lacking in January as there was enough of a drop in the number of people employed in Mesa County to top the national average.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reports unemployment in the state was steady from December to January at 3.0 percent. The national unemployment rate also remained unchanged at 4.1 percent.

The CDLE report also shows the annual unemployment rate in Colorado for 2017 was 2.8 percent. The national average for 2017 was 4.4 percent.

In Mesa County, unemployment rose from 4.1 percent in December to 4.8 percent in January exceeding the national average both for the month and the 2017 average. The year over year unemployment rate decreased 0.8 percent  from January 2017 which was 5.6 percent.

Here is a breakdown of select counties in western Colorado. A report of all counties can be found on the CDLE website.

Statistics listed for each county are non-seasonally adjusted for January 2018 / December 2017 (Percent change from December to January)

  • Delta - 4.8 / 4.1 (+0.7%)
  • Garfield - 3.6  / 3.0 (+0.6%)
  • Gunnison - 2.4 / 2.1 (0.3%)
  • Mesa - 4.8 / 4.1 (+0.7%)
  • Moffat - 4.3 / 3.6 (+0.7%)
  • Montrose - 4.2 / 3.4 (+0.8%)
  • Pitkin - 2.7 / 3.2 (-0.5%)
  • Rio Blanco - 4.5 / 3.7 (0.8%)
  • Routt - 2.4 / 2.4 (0.0%)
  • San Miguel - 2.0 / 2.9 (-0.9%)

The next CDLE employment report is scheduled to be available on March 23 and will include employment statistics from February 2018.

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