For Immediate Release
Date: March 25, 2021
Contact: Office of Government, Policy and Public Relations - cdle_pr@state.co.us
State Labor Dept. Update for the Week Ending March 20th: UI Claims and Reemployment Support
(DENVER) -- Today the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reported that an estimated 11,568 regular initial unemployment claims were filed the week ending March 20th. There were also 1,922 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims filed for the same week. Since mid-March 2020, an estimated total of 881,161 regular initial unemployment claims have been filed and a grand total of 1,140,955 claims, when the PUA program is included.*
For the week ending March 13th, the number of continued weeks requested totalled 245,481. That includes the following totals by UI program: regular UI (88,241), PUA (51,446), and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) (105,794). CDLE estimates those continued claims were filed by approximately 210,572 individuals (80,859 for regular UI; 50,535 for PUA, and 79,178 for PEUC).** Weekly initial and continued claims figures can be viewed in the attached PDF at the end of this press release.
CDLE will hold its next press call on Friday, March 26th to go over the February Employment Situation.
Additional data
Benefits paid March 29, 2020 - March 20, 2021:
Weekly amounts for non regular UI programs can be viewed in the attached PDF at the end of this press release.
Regular UI: $2.82 Billion
Week ending March 20: $30.1 Million
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
(gig workers/self-employed): $1.22 Billion
Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation
($600/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants, CARES Act;
$300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants, CAA): $3.16 Billion
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation
(extends unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks, CARES Act;
extends additional 11 weeks, CAA): $671.9 Million
State Extended Benefits
(extends unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks): $31.1 Million
Lost Wages Assistance
($300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants, fall 2020): $389.2 Million
Total: $8.29 Billion
Helping Coloradans with Reemployment Support
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.
Trainings and Resources for Job Seekers
Please note that some registration links cover the same event over multiple days. Job seekers can see all available training dates by clicking on the drop down menu or “select a date” in the registration links.
Monday, March 29, 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.: Women’s Resource Symposium (job opportunities, information on childcare and mental health resources; veterans have access at 9 a.m., the event is open to the general public from 10 a.m. onward.)
Tuesday, Marcy 30, 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.: Interviewing Part 1
Wednesday, March 31, 1 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.: Careers in Tech
Thursday, April 1, 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.: 50+ — You’re Hired!: (Greeley) In-person only: 918 10th St, Greeley, CO 80631 — call 970-400-6791 to register.
Friday, March 26, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.: HOPE: Helping Offenders Pursue Employment (Greeley, in person) 918 10th St, Greeley, CO 80631, USA, 970-400-6791
Who’s Hiring
As of March 24, 2021, there are 89,991 job postings listed on ConnectingColorado.com, the state’s jobs database.
- The following areas and industries have the most job openings as of March 24, 2021:
- Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (25,315)
- Professional, scientific and technical services (18,693)
- Healthcare and social assistance (16,750)
- Job titles posted most often:
- Registered nurses (9,971)
- Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (8,849)
- Software developers (6,580)
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.
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 (via a new initial claim) or reestablish (through an additional initial claim after an intervening period of employment) 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 regular UI fraudulent activity since the end of last year. Therefore, initial claims for the week ending March 20th 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. PUA initial claims are also adjusted to account for fraudulent activity.
**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, backdating of claims within PUA and PEUC (due to the reestablishment of those programs through the Continued Assistance Act) significantly limits the use of continued claims as the aforementioned proxy on a week-to-week basis. For an alternative source, CDLE recommends using the weekly regular UI, PUA, and PEUC individual continued claim counts provided above. The Department also produces a report that captures the number of UI payment recipients, by program type, on a monthly basis. The monthly data can be viewed in the final pages of the attached PDF at the end of this press release and has been updated through February 2021.
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