Colorado unemployment increases slightly as employers add 4,800 positions

(The Center Square) – More jobs were added in Colorado in July as the state’s unemployment continued to slightly rise, according to a compilation of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Common Sense Institute.

After adding only 1,500 jobs in June, Colorado businesses increased their payrolls with 4,800 jobs in July. Approximately 2,500 jobs were added by the private sector while government employment increased by 2,300 positions.

After the state’s unemployment rate held at 3.8% in May and June, it increased to 3.9% in July. It was the fifth increase in unemployment in the last eight months.

The trade, transportation and utilities sector added 4,100 jobs in July, the largest gain of all sectors. Retail trade, a subset of the sector, showed a gain of 2,000 jobs, the largest single-month increase since February 2022.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of businesses show Colorado’s employment-to-population ratio began exceeding the pre-pandemic level in January 2023. However, the organization’s survey of households, which measures traditional jobs and self-employment, hasn’t returned to the pre-pandemic employment-to-population ratio.

The state’s construction sector didn’t add any jobs in July and remained at 180,900 jobs. The education and health services sector fell by 500 in July, marking the fourth straight month of declines in the category. Colorado’s manufacturing employment dropped by 1,000 in July, the second consecutive month of job losses in the category.

Between January 2021 and July, Colorado added 91,300 jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry. The sector grew 2.9% since January 2020, before the start of the pandemic.

“The pandemic caused a major shock to the composition of Colorado’s job market in early 2020 and may have induced some structural change in the long run,” according to the report.

Colorado’s professional and business services sector grew 6.5% since the start of 2020. The state’s mining and logging sector fell 15.7% during the same period, reducing the share of state employment by more than 20%.

Colorado’s labor force participation rate was 67.9% for the third consecutive month. The national labor force participation rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point to 62.7% in July. The national labor force participation rate for females increased by two-tenths of a percentage point to 57.5%, which is five-tenths of a percentage point below the pre-pandemic level.