Colorado hits lowest unemployment since February 2020

DENVER — Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, which dropped 0.3 of a percentage point in March, was 3.7% last month, the lowest rate since the pre-pandemic nadir of 2.8% in February 2020.

The state trails the nation, which posted a March jobless rate of 3.6%, according to new data released Friday by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. 

But that’s a function of Colorado climbing out of a deeper hole than many other states. Colorado’s recovery rate is 109.3%, outpacing the national rate of 95.9%.

Locally, Boulder County led the way with a non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2.7%, down from 3.2% in February. 

Broomfield County was just behind with 2.8%, an improvement of 0.5% from the previous month.

Larimer County’s rate fell from 3.5% in February to 3% in March.

Weld County had a March jobless rate of 2.8%, compared to 4.3% in March. 

Colorado has been trending in the right direction for months and could potentially see the unemployment rate approach or even dip below pre-pandemic lows, CDLE senior economist Ryan Gedney said. 

“The pre-pandemic rate was pretty much a historical low for Colorado, so at this point I’d say [2.8% is] probably the floor,” he said. “It’s difficult to know. Maybe it goes down to 2.5%, maybe to 2.4%. I’m hard-pressed to say it goes below 2%. There’s not much evidence for that happening in any state.”

Over the year, the average workweek for Colorado workers dropped from 33 to 32.9 hours, according to CDLE data, while average hourly earnings grew from $31.32 to $33.85.

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