More than 15,600 Coloradans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending May 23, representing a six-week drop in the number of claims since coronavirus-related closures resulted in a wave of layoffs beginning in March.

During the peak of pandemic restrictions, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment saw roughly 15,000 applications per day for unemployment benefits. However, last week’s total continues a downward trend, with 17,825 claims being filed for the week ending May 16.

The weekly total does not include the 6,635 people who filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the federally-funded expansion of unemployment insurance to independent contractors and self-employed workers who did not qualify for benefits until Congress intervened.

As the department has moved on from the initial crush of filings, it is changing some processes related to claims handling.

“We’re going to be re-instituting the work search requirement,” said Jeff Fitzgerald, CDLE’s chief of operations. “We have also expanded how we’re defining work search. It doesn’t just include applying for a job. It could include enhancing your skills. It could include networking.”

Through the week ending May 23, the state paid out $95.3 million in claims, the second-highest weekly total to date. During the previous decade’s recession, the largest monthly payout amounted to $102.8 million in May 2009. The state has now broken that record, with $315 million distributed last month.

While the state has paid out $616.8 million in total benefits since the end of March, the federal government has chipped in $868 million after the CARES Act provided for an additional $600 of weekly payouts per person on a short-term basis. Some employers have reported that employees prefer to remain unemployed for as long as the enhanced benefits continue.

The department has begun tracking employee refusals to return to work in cases where employers reopen their businesses. CDLE has received 1,100 such reports and has reviewed 869. Sixteen percent of the cases reviewed were determined to be ineligible for continued unemployment insurance benefits because there was no documentation from the employee of an inability to return to work due to underlying health conditions or unsafe work environment.

“If we found that the only reason that they did not go back to work was due to the fact that they might be making more [on unemployment], that would absolutely cut off benefits,” Fitzgerald said. He added that when claimants request payment of benefits on a weekly or biweekly schedule, they must certify that they are able and available to work, and that they have not refused a job offer.

Cher Roybal Haavind, CDLE’s deputy executive director, said that anecdotally, “it generally seems like workers are choosing to return to work. I think it’s indicative of these benefits … are not into perpetuity.” 

As of May 9, when the most recent data were available, the accommodation and food services industries saw the largest share of workers represented in jobless benefits.

The sector has been hit especially hard through the closure of restaurants, cancellations of in-person events and recommendations against travel. Retail, entertainment and healthcare and social services workers also had high numbers of claims relative to other industries.

Ryan Gedney, a senior economist with the department, said that between late March to the first week in May, the percentage of claims filed by those ages 16-19 has doubled from 1.5% to 3%, while those workers aged 25-54 now comprise approximately 49% of all claims, down from 55% early in the pandemic.

“When looking by sex, males and female have had equal distribution of total claims over the last four weeks,” Gedney said. Initially, women comprised 57% of claims, and in 2019 men filed 60% of all claims. Those shifts, Gedney said, reflect the gender concentration of certain industries.

While the department is seeing 15,000 to 20,000 calls into its call center each day, it is currently training 85 employees to handle the volume. Haavind said that the call center is a bottleneck because of the complexity of unemployment eligibility. Also, the state has seen nearly half a million claims over the past 10 weeks, “many of whom have not had to file for unemployment before,” she explained. “So it’s a lot of education on what’s required from the claimant.”

CDLE will open its lobby on East 12th Avenue in Denver beginning June 8. The department will follow the Division of Motor Vehicles’ lead in taking appointments online, and the scheduling form will be available on June 1. On Friday, the department will host two virtual town hall meetings about unemployment insurance in both English and Spanish. Those with questions about general claims-related topics can register to participate online.