For Immediate Release
Date: January 14, 2021
Contact: Office of Government, Policy and Public Relations - cdle_pr@state.co.us
State Labor Dept Update for the Week Ending January 9th: UI Claims and Featured Job Opening this Week
(DENVER) -- Today the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reported that 14,123 regular initial unemployment claims were filed the week ending January 9th. As reported last week, the Department has identified an increase in reports of UI fraud that is likely connected to the expiration of CARES Act programs. Therefore, the initial claims estimate for the week ending January 9th has been adjusted in an attempt to account for fraudulent activity within regular UI. Additionally, initial claims for the three weeks prior were revised down to the following figures in order to adjust for fraud: week ending December 19th (18,121); week ending December 26th (16,660); and week ending January 2nd (25,178). Going forward, CDLE will adjust regular UI initial claims data for fraudulent activity, as well as publish revisions to prior weeks, when necessary.
Since mid-March, an estimated total of 756,534 regular initial unemployment claims have been filed and an estimated grand total of 1,008,458 claims, including federal PUA benefits.*
For the week ending January 2nd, a combined total of 308,015 continued claims were filed from the regular UI (146,723), PUA (90,511), and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (70,781) programs.** Weekly initial and continued claims figures can be viewed in the attached PDF at the bottom of this press release.
Benefits paid since March 29, 2020:
Regular UI $2.55 Billion
Week ending January 9: $58.1 Million
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
(gig workers/self-employed) $1.05 Billion
Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation
($600/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants) $2.51 Billion
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation
(extends unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks) $360.4 Million
State Extended Benefits
(extends unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks) $29.7 Million
Lost Wages Assistance
($300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants) $389.2 Million
Total $6.90 Billion
Claims by industry
(due to the modernization of Colorado’s unemployment insurance system, and impacts to underlying reports, this dataset will not be updated until the January 28th press release)
Top 10 industries with highest initial claims for week ending December 19th
#1 Healthcare and Social Assistance: 2,070 (11.2% of claims for week)
#2 Education Services: 1,996 (10.8%)
#3 Construction: 1,938 (10.4%)
#4 Accommodation and Food Services: 1,762 (9.5%)
#5 Professional and Technical Services: 1,710 (9.2%)
#6 Public Administration: 1,249 (6.7%)
#7 Administrative and Support and
Waste Management and Remediation Services: 1,229 (6.6%)
#8 Retail Trade: 1,125 (6.1%)
#9 Manufacturing: 946 (5.1%)
#10 Finance and Insurance: 819 (4.4%)
Helping Coloradans with Reemployment Support:
Trainings and Resources for Job Seekers
CDLE and its partners hold regular, no-cost training that can help unemployed Coloradans get rehired. A sampling of events is below and a complete list of events, workshops and training opportunities is available on the CDLE website. Workers are also encouraged to contact their local Workforce Center to find no-cost services from their expert staff. Find your local Workforce Center here.
Trainings and Resources for Job Seekers
January 18, 11:00 am - 11:30 am: Denver Workforce Services “Now Hiring!” Series
January 19, 9:00 am - 11:00 am: Workshop: Interview Skills
January 20, 1:00 pm - 1:30 pm: Careers in Tech
January 21, 1:30 pm - 3:30 am: Resume Workshop
January 22, 9:00 am - 10:30 am: How to Negotiate a Salary
Who’s Hiring
There are more than 70,000 jobs available in ConnectingColorado.com, the state’s jobs database.
- Total number of open jobs (1/6/2021): 74,323
- Job titles posted most often (data from late December):
- CDL-A truck drivers (4,365)
- Registered nurses (985)
- Customer service representatives (926)
- Industries hiring:
- While many industries are hiring, the top three were:
- Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (27,894)
- Professional, scientific, and technical services (21,026)
- Retail trade (19,603)
Updates to detailed initial and continued unemployment claims data that have been available will be delayed until the last week of January. The delay is due to the modernization of Colorado’s unemployment insurance system and impacts to underlying reports.
*Initial claims are claims filed to establish or reestablish benefit eligibility. Initial claims are typically 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. Claimant request schedules are the reason why continued claims are registered for the PUA and PEUC programs for the week ending January 2nd, despite the expiration of those programs through the CARES Act on December 26th, 2020.
Continued claims can be used as a proxy to roughly estimate the number of claimants receiving UI benefits in a given week. However, the Department does produce a report that captures the number of UI payment recipients on a monthly basis. The monthly data can be viewed in the final pages of the attached PDF at the bottom of this press release and has been updated through December 2020.
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