Colorado Ranks 35th For Quickest Recovery In Unemployment Claims

Colorado's workforce ranks near the bottom of states recovering the quickest from the record number of unemployment claims in March and April.

There were still 1.47 million Americans who sought unemployment benefits last week; and while that figure has declined steadily since peaking in late March, it’s still more than double the pre-pandemic peak set in 1982.

Out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Colorado has had the 35th quickest recovery in unemployment claims since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, based on tracking from the U.S. Department of Labor and a report from the financial website WalletHub.

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On a week-over-week basis, Colorado had the 25th best recovery in unemployment claims from last week.

In order to determine which states’ workforces have recovered most from the coronavirus crisis, WalletHub compared the states based on changes in unemployment insurance initial claims for several weeks.

To read the full methodology, visit WalletHub’s website.

Employers in the United States added 4.8 million jobs in June, and the unemployment rate fell to 11.1 percent.

The U.S. job growth in June was driven by companies recalling workers who had been laid off when the coronavirus outbreak intensified. However, the number of Americans saying they have permanently lost their jobs also rose in the most recent report from the Labor Department.

This figure increased by 600,000 last month to nearly 2.9 million.