COLORADO, USA — The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reported that regular initial unemployment claims in the state dropped below 6,000 again last week.
CLDE reported 5,735 regular unemployment insurance (UI) claims and 2,973 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims were filed the week ending Oct. 17.
CDLE also reported that $41.5 million in regular unemployment benefits were paid out the same week.
> Video above: State labor department to forgive up to $1.4 million in unemployment overpayments.
Since mid-March when the coronavirus pandemic was declared, 581,334 UI claims have been filed, and in total 751,602 claims have been filed including federal PUA benefits.
For the week ending Oct. 10, a total of 217,974 continued unemployment claims were filed including 111,129 from regular UI, 67,234 from PUA, and 39,611 from federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) benefits.
Benefits paid since March 29, according to CDLE:
- Regular UI: $2.10 billion
- PUA (gig workers/self-employed): $696.6 million
- Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation
($600 a week in extra UI benefits to eligible claimants): $2.48 billion - PEUC (extends unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks): $126.5 million
- State Extended Benefits (extends unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks): $2.1 million
- Lost Wages Assistance program ($300 a week in extra UI benefits to eligible claimants from federal government): $371.5 million
- Total: $5.77 billion
Industries with highest initial claims for week ending Oct. 3, according to CDLE:
- Accommodation and Food Services: 483 (11.2% of claims that week)
- Healthcare and Social Assistance: 445 (10.3%)
- Retail Trade: 437 (10.2%)
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services: 414 (9.6%)
- Construction: 396 (9.2%)
- Manufacturing: 351 (8.2%)
- Transportation and Warehousing: 315 (7.3%)
- Professional and Technical Services: 288 (6.7%)
- Public Administration: 205 (4.8%)
- Wholesale Trade: 184 (4.3%)
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) provided an update Tuesday on the state's current employment numbers in September based on a household survey.
According to the survey of households, Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 6.4 percent in September from 6.7 percent in August. During the same period, the national unemployment rate declined half of a percentage point to 7.9 percent.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 787,000, a sign that job losses may have eased slightly but are still running at historically high levels.
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department said the number of people who are continuing to receive unemployment benefits tumbled by 1 million to 8.4 million. The decline shows that some of the unemployed are being recalled to their old jobs or are finding new ones. But it also indicates that many jobless Americans have used up their state unemployment aid — which typically expires after six months — and have transitioned to a federal extended benefits program that lasts an additional three months.
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