Colorado Employment Situation – June 2020

55,000 Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Added in June; Unemployment Rate Increases to 10.5%

Household survey data:

According to the survey of households, Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased three-tenths of a percentage point in June to 10.5 percent. During the same period, the national unemployment rate declined 2.2 percentage points to 11.1 percent.

Other highlights from the household survey:

• Colorado’s labor force grew by 100,200 in June to 3,169,300. The labor force participation rate rose by 2.1 percentage points to 68.7 percent, but is still below the February ratio of 69.4 percent.
• The number of individuals employed in Colorado increased by 80,100 in June to 2,835,500, which represents 61.4 percent of the state’s 16+ population. While Colorado’s employment-to-population ratio has improved since April, when it was 58.3 percent, it still falls well below the February level of 67.7 percent.
• The Colorado counties with the highest unemployment rates in June were: Gilpin (19.7%), San Miguel (17.1%), Summit (16.6%), Pitkin (16.0%), and Eagle (15.7%). County-level unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted and are directly comparable to Colorado’s June unadjusted rate of 10.7 percent.

Establishment survey data:

Employers in Colorado added 55,000 nonfarm payroll jobs from May to June for a total of 2,597,100 jobs, according to the survey of business establishments. Private sector payroll jobs increased 58,400 and government declined by 3,400. Since May, Colorado has gained back 126,000 of the 342,300 nonfarm payroll jobs lost between February and April. That translates to a job recovery rate of 36.8 percent, which exceeds the U.S. rate of 33.8 percent.

Other highlights from the establishment survey:

• May estimates were revised up to 2,542,100, and the over the month change from April to May was a gain of 71,000 rather than the originally estimated increase of 68,800 (monthly revisions are based on additional responses from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates).
• Private industry sectors with significant job gains in June were: leisure and hospitality (~40,600), trade, transportation, and utilities (~8,300), professional and business services (~4,700), other services (~4,200), and manufacturing (2,200). The only private industry sector with significant over the month job loss was financial activities (~2,000).
• Since June 2019, nonfarm payroll jobs have decreased 183,000, with losses totaling 166,800 in the private sector and 16,200 in government. The largest private sector job losses were in leisure and hospitality (~86,600), trade, transportation, and utilities (~28,400), and education and health services (~20,900). Colorado’s rate of job loss over the past year is -6.6 percent, compared to the U.S. rate of -8.6 percent.
• Over the year, the average workweek for all Colorado employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased from 34.3 to 33.7 hours, while average hourly earnings rose from $30.19 to $30.34, nearly a dollar more than the national average hourly earnings of $29.37.

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The following are the unemployment percentages for counties in southeast Colorado: