Colorado Employment Situation – November 2022

4,300 Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Added in November; Unemployment Rate Declines to 3.5%

Since May 2020, Colorado’s private sector has grown by 448,500 jobs, compared to declines of 358,800 in early 2020. That translates to a job recovery rate of 125.0 percent and outpaces the U.S. rate of 107.2 percent.

Household survey data:

According to the survey of households, Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased one-tenth of a percentage point in November to 3.5 percent. The number of unemployed individuals dropped by 2,700 over the same time period to 113,600. Colorado’s unemployment rate has ranged between 3.3 and 3.6 percent since April. The national unemployment rate was unchanged in November at 3.7 percent, which translates to approximately 6.0 million unemployed.

Colorado’s labor force decreased by 4,700 in November to 3,252,100. The share of Coloradans participating in the labor force fell slightly to 69.2 percent in November, compared to 69.4 percent the month prior. The U.S. labor force participation rate was 62.1 percent in November, dropping one-tenth of a percentage point from the month prior.

The number of individuals employed in Colorado declined by 2,000 in November to 3,138,400, which represents 66.8 percent of the state’s 16+ population. The rate of 66.8 percent is one and a half percentage points higher than a year ago and three-tenths of a percentage point higher than it was in February 2020. The national employment-to-population ratio was 59.9 percent in November and remains below its February 2020 level of 61.2 percent.

Here are the unemployment percentages for several southeastern Colorado counties: