Colorado Employment Situation for October 2018

Barbara Crimond | Nov 16, 2018 | Comments 0

Employers in Colorado added 4,800 nonfarm payroll jobs from September to October for a total of 2,747,100 jobs, according to the survey of business establishments. Private sector payroll jobs increased 6,100 and government decreased 1,300. September estimates were revised down to 2,742,300, and the over the month change from August to September was a decrease of 700 rather than the originally estimated increase of 5,100.

According to the survey of households, the unemployment rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point from September to October to 3.2 percent. The number of people actively participating in the labor force increased 5,500 over the month to 3,101,200 and the number of people reporting themselves as employed increased 1,800 to 3,003,000. The larger increase in the labor force than in total employment caused the number of unemployed to increase 3,700 and the unemployment rate to increase to 3.2 percent. The national unemployment rate remained unchanged over the same period at 3.7 percent.

Over the year, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased from 33.9 to 33.4 hours and average hourly earnings increased from $27.95 to $29.22.

The largest over the month private sector job gains were in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and trade, transportation, and utilities. There were no significant private sector changes over the month’s declines.

Over the year, nonfarm payroll jobs increased 72,000, with an increase of 62,300 in the private sector and an increase of 9,700 in government. The largest private sector job gains were in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and trade, transportation, and utilities. Other services declined over the year.

Over the year, the unemployment rate is up two-tenths of a percentage point from 3.0 percent. The number of Coloradans participating in the labor force increased 70,100, total employment increased 64,200 and the number of unemployed increased 5,900. The national unemployment rate declined from 4.1 percent in October 2017 to 3.7 percent in October 2018.

The following are the unemployment percentages for southeast Colorado counties:

	Labor Force	Oct 2018	Unemployed	Sept 2018	Oct 2017	Unemployed
Baca	2,268	1.9	42	1.8	1.7	38
Bent	2,048	2.8	58	2.6	2.9	59
Cheyenne	1,227	1.7	21	2.4	1.7	21
Crowley	1,543	3.7	56	4.2	3.1	47
Kiowa	967	1.9	18	2.1	1.9	19
Kit Carson	4,734	2.0	97	1.9	1.8	86
Las Animas	6,812	4.2	289	4.3	3.7	243
Otero	8,834	4.4	389	4.5	3.7	330
Prowers	6,509	3.3	212	3.2	2.4	159