DENVER — The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reported 4,119 regular initial unemployment insurance (UI) claims were filed and $21.8 million in benefits were paid out the week ending May 22.
CDLE also said 877 initial Pandemic Unemployment Insurance (PUA) claims were filed the same week.
>Video above: Colorado will pay people who are unemployed to get and keep a job.
For the week ending May 15, there were 145,305 requests for continued weeks in including 40,807 for regular UI, 25,865 for PUA and 78,633 for the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program.
Since mid-March of 2020, CDLE reports 852,672 regular UI claims have been filed, and a total of 1,117,904 claims have been filed when including the PUA program.
So far, 1,567 claimants of have opted into the new Colorado Jumpstart program, through which claimants who return to work in May and June may be eligible to receive up to $1,600.
CDLE said it will stop releasing weekly updates of unemployment data, but will still release monthly reports.
Unemployment benefits paid out in Colorado from March 29, 2020 through May 22, 2021
- Regular UI: $2.98 billion
- PUA (gig workers/self-employed): $1.37 billion
- Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation ($300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants): $3.73 billion
- PEUC (extends unemployment benefits by additional 29 weeks): $960.1 million
- State Extended Benefits (extends unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks): $35.4 million
- Lost Wages Assistance ($300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants, fall 2020): $389.2 million
- Total: $9.47 billion
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped last week to 406,000, a new pandemic low and more evidence that the job market is strengthening as the virus wanes and economy further reopens.
Thursday’s report from the Labor showed that applications declined 38,000 from 444,000 a week earlier. The number of weekly applications for jobless aid — a rough measure of the pace of layoffs — has fallen by more than half since January.
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