Colorado Unemployment Increase in August Not All Bad News
The unemployment rate in Colorado increase slightly from July to August but that's not necessarily bad news.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment says the increase was minimal, from 2.8% to 2.9%, and is due primarily to an increase of 5,900 more people actively participating in the labor force in August than were participating in July. For the year, the average unemployment rate is 2.9% which indicates a strong and stable employment environment.
The number of people employed increased by 900 which left 5,000 unemployed creating a 0.1% increase in unemployment. For the year, Colorado has added an additional 72,200 jobs. Average wages in the state have also increased slightly.
Colorado's August unemployment rate beat the national unemployment rate by being 1% lower than the national average of 3.9% which remains unchanged from July to August.
Below is a list of several western Colorado counties and the change in non-seasonally adjusted unemployment from July to August. The first number is the July percentage followed by August and the percent change from month to month.
- Delta 3.5% - 3.8% (+0.3%)
- Eagle 2.3% - 2.5% (+0.2)
- Garfield 2.7% - 3.1% (+0.4%)
- Gunnison 2.1% - 2.4% (+0.3%)
- La Plata 2.9% - 3.1% (+0.2%)
- Mesa 3.9% - 4.0% (+0.1%)
- Moffat 3.0% - 3.3% (+0.3%)
- Montrose 3.1% - 3.5% (+0.4%)
- Ouray 2.5% - 3.1% (+0.6%)
- Pitkin 2.7% - 3.1% (+0.4%)
- Rio Blanco 4.0% - 4.7% (+0.7%)
- Routt 2.3% - 2.7% (+0.4%)