Initial unemployment claims skyrocketed in Colorado with the highest weekly increase since April, according to data released Thursday by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

For the week ending Jan. 2, initial weekly unemployment claims reached 41,439, the highest number of claims in nearly nine months and an increase of more than 16,000 from the week previous.

This is the 11th week in a row that initial unemployment claims have increased.

Denver County made up the plurality of initial claims, accounting for 3,986 or over 15% of claims for the week ending Dec. 19. Denver is followed by El Paso County with 3,359 claims.

Continued unemployment claims also increased for the fifth consecutive week, reaching 109,373 claims for the week ending Dec. 26. This comes after 19 straight weeks of decrease from July to November.

No pandemic unemployment claims were filed for the week ending Jan. 6 because of the expiration of the CARES Act on Dec. 26.

The department attributes the increase of weekly claims to this expiration.

Fraudulent Colorado unemployment claims spike

“As reported earlier this week, the increase in reports of UI fraud is likely connected to the expiration of CARES Act programs,” the department said, adding it, “will be conducting further detailed analysis on the increase.”

Pandemic unemployment assistance was extended through March 13 through the the Continued Assistance Act; however, the department said it will be “several weeks” before it can implement the continued programs.

During the last week of the program ending on Dec. 26, there were 19,555 initial pandemic unemployment claims in Colorado, the third-highest number of weekly claims in the program’s history.

Colorado had the second-worst unemployment recovery in the country last week, according to a WalletyHub study.

The state’s health care and social assistance industries appear to be being hit the hardest, making up 11.2% of initial unemployment claims for the week ending on Dec. 19.

They are followed by education workers with 10.8% of claims and construction workers with 10.4%.