Colorado Employment Situation – June 2022

Unemployment Rate Falls to 3.4% in June; 4,500 Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Added

Household survey data:

According to the survey of households, Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point in June to 3.4 percent. This marks the lowest rate since February 2020, when it was 2.8 percent. The national unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in June, unchanged from the prior three months.

Other highlights from the household survey:

Colorado’s labor force grew by 8,200 in June to 3,248,800. The share of Coloradans participating in the labor force improved to 69.5 percent last month, the highest rate since March 2020.

The number of individuals employed in Colorado increased by 11,000 in June to 3,137,000, which represents 67.1 percent of the state’s 16+ population. Colorado’s employment-to-population ratio is at its highest level since January 2009, which was 67.3 percent.

The Colorado counties with the highest unemployment rates in June were: Huerfano (5.7%), Pueblo (5.0%), Las Animas (4.8%), Fremont (4.6%), Otero (4.1%), and Rio Grande (4.1%). County-level unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted and are directly comparable to Colorado’s June unadjusted rate of 3.2 percent.

Since May 2020, Colorado’s private sector has grown by 413,400 jobs, compared to declines of 358,800 in early 2020. That translates to a job recovery rate of 115.2 percent and outpaces the U.S. rate of 100.7 percent. With June gains, the U.S. has fully recovered the private sector jobs lost in March and April 2020.

Over the year, the average workweek for all Colorado employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased from 33.8 to 33.2 hours, while average hourly earnings grew from $31.60 to $34.21, two dollars and thirteen cents more than the national average hourly earnings of $32.08.

These are the unemployment percentages for several counties in southeast Colorado: