Boulder, Larimer, Weld unemployment ticked upward in February

Unemployment rates for Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties edged upward for the second month in a row in February but are still more than a percentage point below where they stood a year ago.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment released its monthly figures on Friday morning, 10 days after the January numbers came out. The unemployment figures are based on CDLE’s survey of households. County figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Boulder County’s unemployment rate ticked upward from 3.7 percent in January to 3.9 percent, but was down from 5.2 percent in February 2014. The county had 169,237 people employed and 6,959 looking for work.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Federal District Court Rules Corporate Transparency Act Unconstitutional . . . But Most Small Businesses Must Still Comply

Lyons Gaddis Real Estate and Business Attorney Cameron Grant shares important details of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).

Larimer County’s rate rose from 4.0 percent to 4.2 percent. That’s in comparison to 5.6 percent a year earlier. The county had 168,288 people employed and 7,373 looking for work.

Weld County’s rate rose from 4.2 percent to 4.4 percent, but was also down 1.6 percentage points from the year before. Weld had 142,231 people employed out of a labor force of 148,779.

Broomfield County, meanwhile, saw its rate stay unchanged from month to month at 4.0 percent, which was down from 5.4 percent last year. Broomfield had 32,344 people employed and 1,364 looking for work.

The increase in rates locally came as the state’s seasonally adjusted rate remained unchanged at 4.2 percent and the nation’s rate dropped from 5.7 to 5.5 percent.

Colorado added 12,200 nonfarm payroll jobs from January to February, giving the state 2,510,600 jobs according to CDLE’s survey of business establishments. About two-thirds of those gains came in the private sector and the government accounting for the rest. February marked the 39^th month out of the last 40 in which the state has seen gains, with the only drop coming from September to October last fall when the state lost 1,000 jobs.

The state has added 79,400 jobs since the same point last year, with the biggest gains coming in construction, education and health services, and leisure and hospitality.