Colorado Unemployment Rate Tops the U.S.

On March 10th, the Colorado Office of Labor Market Information (LMI) announced that the statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate reached 9.1% in January. By comparison, the national rate dropped to 9.0%. The last time Colorado’s rate was higher than the U.S. was September 2005.

These results are further indication that the state is lagging the nation in its recovery. Over the past year, the
national rate has declined, while the state rate has increased slightly.

A review of the 64 counties shows that 35 have a rate less than the state (9.9% non-seasonally adjusted). In
several counties with small labor forces there is unemployment of about 20%. In other words, both urban and rural counties have not been spared.

Colorado has 7 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) that cover 17 counties and account for 86% of the labor force. The unemployment rate (non seasonally adjusted) in 9 counties is less than the rate for the state.

A review of unemployment rates by MSA shows that the Denver-Aurora is the same as the state, whereas Boulder-Longmont and Fort Collins-Loveland fall below the state. The remaining four MSAs have rates (Greeley, Pueblo,Colorado Springs, and Grand Junction) above the state.

In addition, Colorado has seven Micropolitan Statistical Areas (MCAs) that cover 8 counties. About 5.5% of the
labor force works in these locales.

Five of the seven MCAs have unemployment lower than the state average (Durango, Edwards, Fort Morgan, Silverthorne, and Sterling). On the other hand, unemployment in Canon City and Montrose is well above the state average.Unemployment in 5 of the 8 counties is below 9.9%. In the remaining 39 rural counties, 21 had unemployment rates lower than 9.9%.

The aggregate rate of unemployment was greatest in the MSAs (9.94%), followed by the MCAs (9.70%), and the rural counties (9.58%). About one-third of the counties have unemployment below 8.0%.

On a more positive note, limited job creation began in the second quarter of 2010. If that growth continues, the state rate is likely to follow the national trend, and decline as the year progresses.

©Copyright 2011 by CBER.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *