As of November, Colorado’s unemployment rate remained at 2.6%, while the national rate decreased to 3.5%, according to data from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Senior economist Ryan Gedney said Friday that the state has added 57,100 payroll jobs over the past year, a growth rate of 2.1%. “That ranks as the 10th-fastest payroll job growth in the nation. The overall U.S. job growth rate in November was 1.5%,” he explained.

Professional and business services jobs have grown at the highest rate, at 4.9%. However, the mining and logging industry saw job declines for the first time since March 2017. Twenty-three other states saw similar losses in that sector in November 2019.

The Boulder and Fort Collins metro areas continued to have the lowest seasonally unadjusted unemployment in the state, at 2.1%. Pueblo’s rate was the highest of any metro area (3.8%) and San Miguel County’s was the highest of any county (6.7%).

November’s numbers ranked Colorado as having the fifth-lowest unemployment of any state.

Also on Friday, the Office of State Planning and Budgeting released an economic forecast predicting 3.5% growth in fiscal year 2019-2020 general fund revenue. The money subject to refunds under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, however, will be approximately $280 million. In fiscal year 2020-2021, that number is expected to be $404.5 million as economic growth continues.

Tariff rates between the U.S. and China are the highest they have been since at least January 2018, and have doubled since July 2018. However, “[d]espite lower overall trade activity, Colorado farm income is expected to rise in 2019 due to higher production levels and payments from the Federal government,” the forecast reports.

Last week, the Colorado Workforce Development Council in its annual report noted that despite low unemployment, there are many jobs — particularly those that require more than a high school degree — which will require long-term initiatives to fill. That same report indicated that students of color lag significantly behind whites in college attainment, and that the employment rate of black women is declining.