Labor department: 61,000+ Coloradans filed for unemployment last week

DENVER — An additional 61,583 Colorado residents filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said Thursday morning, as the economic effects of the novel coronavirus continue to stop the state and national economy in its tracks.

The figure is a 36% increase from the approximately 45,000 state residents who filed from March 23 to 26, and a 146% increase over the approximately 25,000 new claims filed between March 9 and 13.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported just under 6.65 million Americans filed for initial unemployment benefits last week, doubling the then-record 3.31 million who filed in the week ending March 21.

In a call with reporters, CDLE senior economist Ryan Gedney said 28% of the claims made in the week prior to March 14 were from leisure and hospitality jobs such as restaurants and hotels. The historical average for claims in those industries are between 7 to 9%.

He also expects more claims to come from employees in retail, education, travel, certain parts of the health-care industry that aren’t involved in treating COVID-19 patients and in-person service sectors like hairdressers.

The state is projecting it will have paid $8.5 million in claims last week, or $1.4 million more than the average weekly payout during 2019. However, Gedney said that figure is likely to more than double by the end of this week.

“I anticipate the amount of benefits paid out for the week ending April 4 will easily exceed $20 million,” he said.

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