Colorado received 61,000 applications for unemployment between Monday and Thursday, a dramatic uptick from the approximately 25,000 applications received the prior week. The application numbers are unofficial, as the state undertakes eligibility verifications and other processes to ensure an accurate number gets reported weekly to the U.S. Department of Labor. 

As businesses have shuttered, events have been canceled, and stay-at-home orders have spread across multiple states in the name of halting the spread of COVID-19, Americans have filed for unemployment insurance at a rate not seen since the 2008 recession.

Ryan Gedney, a senior economist for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said that not every initial claim for benefits is entitled to receive payment given the employment and wage verifications that occur during processing. However, “in this current environment, I expect there to be an extremely high share of first-time filers to receive unemployment benefits.”

Cher Roybal Haavind, CDLE’s deputy executive director, added that new protocols, including a request that people file on alternating days of the week depending on the first letter of their last name, have resulted in a processing capacity of 15,000 to 20,000 claims daily. Other changes enabled by Gov. Jared Polis include waiving the requirement that a recipient of unemployment benefits be actively searching for work and eliminating a one-week waiting period for benefits.

CDLE anticipates processing claims and beginning payments within 10 to 14 days of submission, although the aspiration is for a window of seven to 10 days. Normally, benefits can take four to six weeks to reach recipients.

“We are seeing less frequency of time outs and error messages,” said Haavind, referring to the technological struggles applicants experienced early on as the online system was overloaded with users.

Gedney said that the insured unemployment rate as of February was at less than 1%. The rate encompasses the number of Coloradans receiving benefits divided by the total number of employees in the state covered by employer-paid unemployment insurance. During the last recession, the peak was more than four times that rate.

Haavind said that although the state has never failed to pay unemployment benefits, during the recession of 2008, Colorado did have to borrow money from the federal government to cover claims.

“While the state and the nation are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of layoff activity, I feel it’s too early to determine exactly how high the state’s unemployment rate might rise,” Gedney said.

CDLE also announced that in February, Colorado’s unemployment rate remained at its historical low of 2.5%, and was tied for the third-lowest in the country. The national unemployment rate dropped from 3.8% in February 2019 to 3.5% last month. CDLE will hold virtual job fairs over the coming weeks with employers experiencing labor demand, including Amazon, King Soopers and Safeway.