Colorado Politics

Colorado jobs: A May snapshot

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment came out Friday with its latest monthly jobs report, covering May. Here are the key takeaways for the state’s workers:

Explainer: These numbers come from two different government job surveys that don’t always agree: A survey of employers (payroll jobs only) that doesn’t include self-employed people and farm workers, and a survey of households (payroll and non-payroll employment, unemployment, labor force participation) that does include those categories. In the latter survey, people with multiple jobs are counted only once.

“Unemployment” (as the government defines it) means people who don’t have a job and have applied for one in the last four weeks. “Unemployment” figures do not include out-of-work people who haven’t sought a job recently, or “discouraged” workers who say they want a job but haven’t applied because they don’t think one is available for them, or people working part-time who say they can’t find a full-time job, or people who aren’t seeking a job because they’re retired, or sick or disabled, or in school, or at home caring for their family.

“Labor force participation” means people with jobs plus unemployed people actively looking for a job.

“Payroll jobs” means working for an employer except for farm workers. It does not include the self employed or certain home domestic workers.

(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
Wilfredo Lee

PREV

PREVIOUS

COPO BEST OF THE WEEK: Primary Preview, oil & gas ballot push and more

Happy Friday. Here’s our recap of some of our best stories of the week from the Colorado Politics staff. Many of our best stories are available only to paid subscribers. Subscribers also get access to our weekly magazine. (Not a subscriber yet? CLICK HERE  to join us.) > PRIMARY PREVIEW: A Colorado Politics special report […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

Hundreds of primary votes in El Paso County won't count. Here's why

Nearly 600 unaffiliated voters in El Paso County returned ballots for Republican and Democratic primaries, an error that disqualifies each of the ballots. As of Friday morning, 595 of the county’s roughly 140,000 unaffiliated voters had turned in ballots for both primaries – despite four different reminders printed on ballots and envelopes that voters should […]


Welcome Back.

Streak: 9 days i

Stories you've missed since your last login:

Stories you've saved for later:

Recommended stories based on your interests:

Edit my interests