Tools

Colorado Unemployment Rate Continues to Drop, Mesa County's Continues to Rise

by KREX News Room
by Cori Coffin
by Associated Press

Story Created: Mar 18, 2013 at 7:04 PM MDT

Story Updated: Mar 18, 2013 at 7:19 PM MDT

DENVER (AP) - The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment says the state's unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent in January from December's 7.6 percent.

The agency said Monday that employers in Colorado added 7,100 non-farm payroll jobs from December to January for a total of 2.3 million jobs, according to a survey of businesses.

Private sector payroll jobs increased 8,200 and government jobs dropped by 1,100.

The national unemployment rate increased one-tenth of one percentage point over the same period to 7.9 percent.

Locally, Mesa County is experiencing a four-month rising trend.

"Our unemployment rate is still higher than the state and nation's. So, that's fairly significant about how we look at things. But, if we look at a trend over the last several years, we're seeing that we're at least moving in the right direction," explained Suzie Miller with the Mesa County Workforce Center.

Mesa County's January unemployment rate was 9.2 percent, up from December's rate of 8.9 percent.

However, year-over-year, the trend is headed downward. January of 2012 saw a rate of 10.3 percent, compared to 2011's 11.9 percent and 2010's 12 percent.

Officials with the Mesa County Workforce Center say that indicates strong, long-term growth. They added that January is a historically low employment month, due to seasonal jobs ending.

You have indicated this comment should be removed.

Close

The comment has been submitted for review. Thank you .

Disgusted said on Monday, Mar 18 at 11:23 PM

Yet they scratch their beards and cluck their tongues and look puzzled about why The Peoples Republic of Mesa County has a suicide rate triple what it is in America.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KREX - News, Weather, Sports for Grand Junction | Montrose | Glenwood Springs - Coverage You Can Count On and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

Most Popular
This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.
News Channel 5 Weather