Colorado Employment Situation – February 2026 Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Decrease by 7,200 in February; Unemployment Rate Unchanged at 3.9 Percent

Barbara Crimond | Apr 27, 2026 | Comments 0

Household survey data

According to the survey of households, the number of unemployed individuals increased by 1,000 to 127,300 from January to February. Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged over the same time period at 3.9 percent. The national unemployment rate increased by one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.4 percent from January to February.
Colorado’s labor force decreased by 10,300 in February to 3,238,500. The share of Coloradans participating in the labor force was 66.6 percent in February, two-tenths of a percentage point lower than in January, this marks the lowest labor force participation rate since September 2020. The U.S. labor force participation rate decreased one-tenth of a percentage point to 62.0 percent in February.
The number of individuals employed in Colorado decreased by 11,300 in February to 3,111,200, which represents 64.0 percent of the state’s 16+ population. Colorado’s employment-population ratio of 64.0 percent in February decreased two-tenths of a percentage point from January. The national employment-population ratio decreased one-tenth of a percentage point from the month prior to 59.3 percent in February.

Establishment survey data

Employers in Colorado lost 7,200 nonfarm payroll jobs from January to February for a total of 2,953,500 jobs, according to the survey of business establishments. Private sector payroll jobs decreased by 7,200, while government was unchanged.
January estimates were revised down by 5,300 jobs to 2,960,700, making the over the month change from December to January an increase of 1,300 jobs rather than the originally estimated increase of 6,600 (monthly revisions are based on additional responses from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates).
The private industry sector with significant over the month job gains in February was: construction (≈1,000). The private industry sectors with significant over the month job losses were: other services (≈2,200), trade, transportation, and utilities (≈1,700), and educational and health services (≈1,000).
Since February 2025, nonfarm payroll jobs have decreased by 9,100, with the private sector decreasing by 5,600 and government losing 3,500 jobs. The largest private sector job gains were in educational and health services (≈13,400) and construction (≈2,500). During that same period, payroll jobs declined in financial activities (≈4,800), professional and business services (≈4,600), manufacturing (≈3,800), leisure and hospitality (≈3,700), information (≈3,300), mining and logging (≈1,100), and other services (≈1,000). Colorado’s rate of job growth over the past year is -0.3 percent, below the U.S. rate of 0.1 percent.
Over the year, the average workweek for all Colorado employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased from 33.4 to 33.3 hours, while average hourly earnings grew from $39.72 to $39.79, two dollars and fifty cents more than the national average hourly earnings of $37.29.