(The Center Square) – In just one month, Colorado’s unemployment rate dropped from 10th highest nationally to 16th. Over that same period, the national unemployment rate increased by one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.3%.
That means that Colorado’s unemployment rate of 4.2% is no longer higher than the national average. This is according to August data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Yet Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is still raising concerns over tariffs and their impact on Colorado’s economy.
“The president’s reckless tariff taxes are increasing costs on consumers, sabotaging our economy, tightening the job market, and driving up inflation,” the Democratic governor said in a statement in response to the release of Colorado’s quarter three economic forecast. “While Colorado is faring better than the rest of the country with lower unemployment and stronger growth, hardworking families are being cornered to grapple with higher costs, forcing them to make hard personal budget decisions at the dining room table.”
Earlier this year, Colorado saw some of the highest unemployment since September 2021. In the past few months, though, it has been consistently trending down from its high of 4.8%.
In August, the number of unemployed individuals decreased by 9,000 to 139,100 from July, according to a report from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
The report wasn’t all good news, though.
Duplicating a similar decrease in July, Colorado’s labor force decreased by 4,700 to 3.28 million.
This means that the share of Coloradans participating in the labor force was 67.4%, or 0.2% lower than July’s.
While the past few months have seen consistent decreases in Colorado’s labor force, it still remains 5% higher than the national average of 62.3%.
The report also found that the private sector saw more growth than government jobs, which isn’t always a given in Colorado. In August, the private sector gained 3,300 jobs while the government lost 300 jobs.
That means in the past year that the private sector increased by 8,800 jobs. The government still saw more growth than the private sector, adding 9,500 jobs.
Overall job growth has also been slow in Colorado.
While unemployment is now lower in Colorado than nationally, Colorado’s rate of job growth since August 2024 was just 0.6%, compared to the national rate of 0.9%.
