Unemployment rates have dropped more in a 12 month period in Boulder County compared to Colorado or the United States.
From March 2021 to 2022, unemployment in Boulder County went from 5.1% to 2.7% — dropping by 47%. According to state department reporting, April’s unemployment rate was 2.4% in Boulder County, the lowest it’s been since January 2020.
In Colorado, unemployment went from 6.2% to 3.5% over that same period, equal to a 44% decrease. Nationwide, the number of unemployed people went down by 39%, with joblessness sitting at 3.8% in the U.S.
Colorado’s unemployment for March 2022 is the lowest it has been since February 2020, when the rate was 2.8%, according to the Department of Labor and Unemployment. The state said Colorado’s labor force grew by 13,600 in April with the share of Coloradans participating in the labor force improving to 69.1% last month.
This is the highest participation rate since March 2020, with Colorado experiencing a much faster rate of recovery in participation compared to the U.S. Colorado’s employment to population ratio has surpassed the pre-pandemic level with two in three people over 16 currently employed in Colorado.
According to state reporting, there were 10,705 job openings advertised online in Boulder County on Monday compared to 4,794 unemployed people in the county’s workforce. The employers with the highest number of job openings in the county include Boulder Community Health, the Sierra Nevada Corporation, St. Vrain Valley School District, University of Colorado Boulder and Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Sectors with significant job gains throughout the state in April were leisure and hospitality, trade, transportation, utilities, professional and business services, construction, and education and health services.
In the past year, average hourly earnings in Colorado grew from $31.23 to $34.34, nearly $2.50 more than than the national average hourly earnings. In Boulder County, the average hourly wage is $40.73.
