Colorado labor department reports 25,360 regular initial unemployment claims filed last week

COLORADO, USA — The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) on Thursday reported 25,360 regular initial unemployment claims were filed for the week ending Dec. 26, as well as 19,555 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims.

Since mid-March, 732,119 regular initial unemployment claims (UI) have been filed and 984,043 total claims, including federal PUA benefits.

CDLE also reported for the week ending Dec. 19, a combined total of 265,507 continued claims were filed from:

• Regular UI (102,851)
• PUA (86,464)
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (76,192) programs

CDLE revises down PUA initial and continued claims for prior weeks were to adjust for fraudulent activity within the program. 

CDLE reported PUA initial claims were revised down a combined total of 30,173 for the period of Oct. 17-Dec. 19. PUA continued claims were revised down an average of 4,000 per week over the same period of time. 

CDLE breaks down the $6.69 billion in benefits paid since March 29 as follows: 

• Regular UI: $2.45 billion — week ending Dec. 26 $39.8 million               
• PUA (gig workers/self-employed): $1.01 billion
• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation ($600/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants): $2.51 billion
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (extends unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks): $327.4 million
• State Extended Benefits (extends unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks): $29.6 million
• Lost Wages Assistance ($300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants): $389.2 million

Below is information on claims by industry based on the most recent data available, the week ending Dec. 12:

• Accommodation and food services: 2,471 (17.2% of claims for week)
• Healthcare and social assistance: 1,599 (11.1%)
• Education services: 1,428 (9.9%)
• Construction: 1,401 (9.7%)
• Professional and technical services: 1,098 (7.6%)
• Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services: 1,017 (7.1%)
• Retail trade: 874 (6.1%)    
• Manufacturing: 720 (5.0%)    
• Wholesale trade: 579 (4.0%)
• Public administration: 551 (3.8%)

Detailed initial and continued unemployment claims data through the week ending Dec.12 are available here.

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