Colorado’s new jobless claims dipped slightly from the previous week for the week ending Feb. 13 at 12,151, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said Thursday.

The 14% drop is representative of what’s been happening all 2021 – with a range of 14,123 the week ending Jan. 9 (first full week) to 14,018 the week ending Feb. 6 with an average 14% fluctuation up or down those five weeks.

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The 25,178 new claims filed the week ending Jan. 2 also had the last of 2020, when jobless numbers spiked because of the restaurant and service industry restrictions.

The department also announced the rollout of the phase two of processing the claims of contract, or gig, workers will begin earlier than expected – Saturday.

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“We know the gap from when these benefits ran out Dec. 26 to now has been a hardship,” said Executive Director Joe Barela during a news conference.

“We’re committed to make sure we’re doing all that’s possible to make sure the system is in compliance with all the (U.S. Department of Labor) rules and regulations required to enable us to pay claimants.”

The CDLE reported 184,755 continued claims were filed from the regular unemployment insurance program and for contract workers covered by Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

Continued claims were carried over from 2020, not new. Phase one for those contract workers, which started Feb. 1, covered those who had existing balances.

Those continued claims were filed by 129,181 individuals (each week of back pay can be a new claim).

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For phase two, those contract workers with new claims will be able to file starting Saturday.

That includes those who ran out of funds before the Dec. 26 expiration, and those who exhausted “regular” state unemployment claims.

The latter group will get up to 11 weeks more of payments through the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.

The department is shutting down the whole system from 5:30 p.m. Friday through 3:30 a.m. Saturday.

“If you were on the PUA program, and exhausted that, you need to go in and file a new state claim first,” said Phil Spesshardt, branch manager of the Unemployment Insurance Operations.

“It’s a federal requirement to make sure they’re not eligible for state claims. If you do qualify for regular state claims, you can’t do PUA as well. Wait 24 hours after opening that, and if there’s no funds – there will be a link to reopen the PUA claim.”

The department hired 60 new agents to handle calls, as well as adding 100 more for the third-party call center it has been using, bringing its level to 600. It plans to post 50 new state call center positions as well, said Cher Haviind, spokeswoman.

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Officials verified there were more than 1 million fraudulent claims worth more than $100 million made — which has been slowing payments to legitimate claimants.

Haviind said the department has released some $25 million to 28,000 claims that had been held up for fraud holds. More than 114,000 claimants agreed to having their identity verified.

Fraud is an issue for every state’s labor department, Spesshardt said.

“Colorado prevented some $7 billion in fraud claims from being paid out,” he said. “The state of Washington, for example, lost $600 million before they caught it.”

Colorado’s unemployment level in December was 8.4%, the most recent update available. January’s unemployment level won’t be determined until March, according to the CDLE.