DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado no longer has a nation-topping unemployment picture.
Unemployment is rising slightly in Colorado, stalling short of pre-pandemic numbers. The national unemployment rate stands at 3.7%, according to a release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Colorado, the unemployment rate is slightly lower at 3.6%.
In terms of unemployment, Colorado has suffered greater setbacks than the U.S. at large. Its unemployment has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels stopping a decade’s trend of better-than-average rates.
Both the nation’s and Colorado’s unemployment rates have been falling from their heights during the first year of the COVID pandemic, but have stalled.
Colorado’s unemployment is nearly one point higher than its low of 2.8% in February 2020. The U.S., meanwhile, has regained most of its labor because it had less to recover. It was 3.5% before the pandemic.
Colorado had previously enjoyed the better part of a decade with a better labor outlook than the rest of the country. Through most of the last 10 years, Colorado’s unemployment rate was a point or more beneath the U.S. rate.
The COVID pandemic ended that.
Colorado’s unemployment shot up with the rest of the country’s in March 2020, though it did not peak at the same height. In the process of recovering, Colorado’s unemployment has closely matched the U.S. average instead of trailing it.
Now, Colorado’s unemployment is average compared to other U.S. states rather than being among the nation’s best.
In the February before COVID, Colorado had the nation’s 10th lowest unemployment rate. Now, it has the nation’s 23rd highest.