For Immediate Release
Date: October 1, 2020
Contact: Office of Government, Policy and Public Relations - cdle_pr@state.co.us
State Labor Dept: Initial Regular Unemployment Claims Fall Below 5,000 For The Week Ending September 26th
(DENVER) -- Today the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reported that 4,840 regular initial unemployment claims were filed the week ending September 26th. There were also 2,413 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims filed for the same week. Since mid-March, a total of 563,465 regular unemployment initial claims have been filed and a grand total of 725,919 claims, including federal PUA benefits.*
For the week ending September 19th, a combined total of 238,326 continued claims were filed, including 143,177 from regular UI, 64,066 from PUA, and 31,083 from Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.**
The Department also announced that through the week ending September 26th it paid a total of $311 million in Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) unemployment benefits. LWA is a federally-funded program that provides up to six weeks of additional benefits to all claimants who were eligible for unemployment benefits for the weeks July 26 - September 5th and who were eligible for at least $100/week in unemployment. Regular UI claimants must certify by Saturday, October 10th to receive these benefits and will not receive LWA payments without required federal certification that their unemployment status was due to Covid-19. Claimants can certify by phone or online at coloradoui.gov.
Benefits paid since March 29:
Regular UI $1.96 Billion
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
(gig workers/self-employed) $639.8 Million
Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation
($600/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants) $2.46 Billion
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation
(extends unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks) $67.5 Million
State Extended Benefits
(extends unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks) $513,700
Lost Wages Assistance
($300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants) $311.0 Million
Total $5.44 Billion
Claims by industry and benefits paid
Benefits paid: Regular UI
Week ending September 26: $54.6 Million
Top 10 industries with highest initial claims for week ending September 12th
#1 Construction: 435 (12.5% of claims for week)
#2 Manufacturing: 416 (12.0%)
#3 Healthcare and Social Assistance: 360 (10.3%)
#4 Administrative and Support and
Waste Management and Remediation Services: 342 (9.8%)
#5 Retail Trade: 341 (9.8%)
#6 Accommodation and Food Services: 325 (9.3%)
#7 Professional and Technical Services: 257 (7.4%)
#8 Transportation and Warehousing: 137 (3.9%)
#9 Wholesale Trade: 126 (3.6%)
#10 Education Services: 116 (3.3%)
* Initial claims are claims filed to establish benefit eligibility. Initial claims are considered a reliable leading indicator of economic activity. All applications filed are those applications for benefits filed with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and may not have been through various eligibility determination e.g. wage verification, etc.
**Continued claims are filed to request payment for a given week after eligibility has been established. Weeks claimed provide information as to current labor market conditions.