Strong hiring at hotels, restaurants and private health care providers contributed to a monthly gain of 8,400 nonfarm jobs in Colorado in April, reversing what had been a sluggish start economically to the year, according to an update Friday from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
February recorded a monthly loss of 11,600 jobs, but the gain in March was revised to 7,600 from the 6,800 initially reported. Those numbers were distorted by a King Soopers strike, which eliminated 10,000 jobs in February and then added a similar number back in March. April, absent the strike impacts, came in at a strong 8,400.
Of the state’s 18 industry sectors, nine added jobs last month, eight lost jobs and one, mining, was unchanged on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the CDLE report.
“While there is currently uncertainty in the economy caused by federal policies, the uncertainty and volatility in the Colorado labor market existed long before. Current federal policies may be exacerbating existing weaknesses in the Colorado labor market,” said Broomfield economist Gary Horvath in an email.
Accommodation and food service, with 5,200 jobs added, and private health care and social assistance, with 4,500 jobs added, led the hiring wave. Transportation, warehousing and utilities were up 1,700 jobs and government employment was up by 1,200 positions.
The biggest monthly declines last month came in administrative, support and waste management jobs, down 1,700 jobs; and retail trade, down 1,200 jobs.
Annual job gains remain weak at 23,200. The Colorado job growth rate of 0.8% lags behind the U.S. job growth rate of 1.2%, but it is an improvement from a 0.1% gain in March and a 0.1% decline in February. Of the jobs added in the past year, 9,000 were in the private sector and 14,200 in the public sector.
The state’s unemployment rate remained steady at 4.8%, which is higher than the 4.2% rate for the U.S., which also was unchanged. The number of unemployed workers increased by 2,100 last month, while the total number of employed, which includes the self-employed, rose by 500, according to a survey of households.
Regarding federal layoffs, the state has received 781 unemployment claims from federal workers between Jan. 19 and May 10, Horvath said. That is out of roughly 57,000 federal workers in the state. Most of the workers seeking assistance were from Denver, El Paso, Jefferson and Larimer counties.
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