For Immediate Release
Date: January 28, 2021
Contact: Office of Government, Policy and Public Relations - cdle_pr@state.co.us
State Labor Dept Update For Week Ending January 23rd: UI Claims and Featured Job Openings This Week
(DENVER) -- Today the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reported that an estimated 11,432 regular initial unemployment claims were filed the week ending January 23rd. The week prior an estimated 12,881 regular initial claims were filed.* Since mid-March, an estimated total of 780,847 regular initial unemployment claims have been filed and an estimated grand total of 1,032,471 claims, including federal PUA benefits.
For the week ending January 16th, a total of 85,305 continued claims were filed from the regular UI program.** The week prior there were 88,949 regular UI continued claims. There are no Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) or Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) continued claims to report until both programs have been incorporated into MyUI+ to reflect guidance from the Continued Assistance Act and eligible claimants are able to request payment. 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 $2.60 Billion
Week ending January 16: $20.6 Million
Week ending January 23: $23.9 Million
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
(gig workers/self-employed) $1.06 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) $360.5 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 $6.94 Billion
Claims by industry
Due to the modernization of Colorado’s unemployment insurance system, and impacts to underlying reports, updates to this dataset will be delayed for an indeterminate period of time.
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
February 2, 1:30 - 3:30: LinkedIn Training
February 3 , 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm: How to Network
February 5, 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 (1/27/21): 75,984
- Job titles posted most often:
- CDL-A truck drivers (3,313)
- Registered nurses (1,024)
- Customer service representatives (831)
- Industries hiring:
While many industries are hiring, the top three were: - Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (25,871)
- Professional, scientific, and technical services (17,381)
- Retail trade (16,196)
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and the Office of the Future of Work publish articles to share hiring trends and highlight online and in-person resources to connect workers with meaningful employment. This week, we’ll give you an update on last week’s job postings and share the OFOW's first annual report. Read the latest article here.
Updates to detailed initial and continued unemployment claims data that have been available will be delayed for an indeterminate period of time. The delay is due to the modernization of Colorado’s unemployment insurance system and impacts to underlying reports that are used to generate these datasets.
*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.
As previously reported, 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 weeks ending January 16th and January 23rd have been adjusted in an attempt to account for fraudulent activity within regular UI. Going forward, CDLE will adjust regular UI initial claims data for fraudulent activity, as well as publish revisions to prior weeks, when necessary.
**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.
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.