Colorado Employment Situation in September 2018

Barbara Crimond | Oct 19, 2018 | Comments 0

Employers in Colorado added 5,100 nonfarm payroll jobs from August to September for a total of 2,748,100 jobs, according to the survey of business establishments. Private sector payroll jobs increased 4,400 and government increased 700. August estimates were revised up to 2,743,000, and the over the month increase from July to August was 4,000 rather than the originally estimated 1,500.

According to the survey of households, the unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a percentage point from August to September to 3.1 percent. The number of people actively participating in the labor force increased 5,300 over the month to 3,096,000 and the number of people reporting themselves as employed increased 1,300 to 3,001,500. The larger increase in the labor force than in total employment caused the number of unemployed to increase 4,000 and the unemployment rate to increase to 3.1 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate decreased two-tenths of a percentage point in September to 3.7 percent. This is the lowest unemployment rate for the U.S. since it was 3.5 percent in December 1969.

Over the year, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased from 33.5 to 34.3 hours and average hourly earnings increased from $27.77 to $29.40.

The largest over the month private sector job gains were in education and health services, and financial activities. The largest over the month decline was in leisure and hospitality.

Over the year, nonfarm payroll jobs increased 77,200, with an increase of 68,200 in the private sector and an increase of 9,000 in government. The largest private sector job gains were in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and construction. Other services declined over the year.

Over the year, the unemployment rate is up one-tenth of a percentage point from 3.0 percent. The number of Coloradans participating in the labor force increased 72,300, total employment increased 68,500 and the number of unemployed increased 3,800. The national unemployment rate declined from 4.2 percent in September 2017 to 3.7 percent in September 2018.

These are the unemployment figures for southeastern Colorado counties:

	Labor Force	Sept 2018	Unemployed	Aug 2018	Sept 2017	Unemployed
Baca	2,378	1.8	43	2.0	1.5	33
Bent	2,106	2.6	54	3.2	2.9	55
Cheyenne	1,259	1.7	22	1.9	1.9	21
Crowley	1,564	4.2	65	4.9	3.3	49
Kiowa	1,042	2.1	22	2.3	1.9	18
Kit Carson	4,912	1.9	93	2.4	1.7	78
Las Animas	6,780	4.2	288	5.0	3.9	246
Otero	9,026	4.4	400	5.3	3.9	326
Prowers	6,719	3.2	217	3.7	2.5	157