Federal shutdown delaying Colorado unemployment report

DENVER — As a result of the ongoing federal government shutdown, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment will not report statewide job figures on Friday as was previously scheduled.

“Federal agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and Department of Labor are not reporting on labor market and employment information during the shutdown,” CLDE said Tuesday. “Colorado’s release of employment data will recommence when the federal government resumes operations.”

While the state relies on federal data for its monthly unemployment reports, the feds have taken issue with Colorado’s reporting accuracy in the recent past. 

In late December 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics decided to temporarily stop publishing reports using Colorado employment data because the federal agency says the state’s information is not reliably accurate.

For its part, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment claimed that the data-accuracy problems stem from an unemployment insurance technology-modernization effort in late 2023 that resulted in drastically reduced rates of compliance for employer self-reporting of employment figures. 

The state-level data issues in Colorado have the potential to cause downstream accuracy impacts on the BLS’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Current Employment Statistics and Local Area Unemployment Statistics programs, the federal government said this month. 

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