DENVER — Colorado and every county in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado improved their unemployment rates in December over both December 2020 and November 2021.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment issued its monthly unemployment report Friday. It showed that the statewide unemployment rate declined from 4.4% to 4.1% when comparing November with December. December 2020 rates were significantly higher, at 6.9%.

Colorado’s rate was still higher than the national unemployment rate in December, which stood at 3.9%.

The CDLE also reported that employers added 9,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in the last month of the year for a total of 2.8 million jobs. Private-sector employers added 7,900, and government employers added 1,100. 

Among counties in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado, Boulder County continued to lead the pack with a rate of 3.2%, compared with 3.5% in November and 5.8% in December a year prior.

Broomfield County saw a 3.4% rate in December, compared with 3.7% in November and 6.2% in December 2020.

Larimer County’s rate was 3.5%, compared with 3.8% in November and 6.4% a year ago.

Weld County’s unemployment rate was 4.2%, down from 4.5% in November and 7.1% in December 2020.

While the COVID-19 recession caused a far higher unemployment rate — 12.1% in April 2020 compared with 9.4% during the peak of the Great Recession — recovery has been the fastest so far this century, the CDLE showed in its statistical analysis.

Nearly all industries added jobs in December with the professional and business services category leading with 1,900 jobs added. Since December 2020, accommodation and food services saw the highest number of jobs return — 67,900. That sector was among the hardest hit when the pandemic’s effects first began to be felt.