A three-month slide in new Colorado unemployment claims continued as 6% fewer claims were filed for the week ending May 15, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

There were 4,132 new regular claims filed last week, 263 less than for the week ending May 8, the agency reported Thursday. That’s the 12th continuous week new claims dropped, and remains the lowest level since March 14, 2020.

Self-employed, contract or “gig” workers filed an additional 712 claims under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which is slightly higher than the previous week’s 616.

But the total number of new claims still dropped for all payroll and PUA-eligible workers, 3.4% from the previous week’s total of 5,011.

Continuing claims continued the decline as well, to 188,427 for the week ended May 8. That’s a 2.3% drop from the previous week.

April’s statewide unemployment total has not been released by the the agency yet, but is expected Friday. March’s rate stood at 6.4% — the same level as February, but down from January’s 6.6% level. The national unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 6.1% in April.

Colorado’s decline in new unemployment claims mirrors the national trend. The U.S. Department of Labor released new numbers Thursday as well, showing 444,000 seasonally adjusted initial claims, down 34,000 from the previous week and the lowest level of initial claims since March 14, 2020’s level of 256,000 new claims.

The state agency reports that $9.34 billion in claims have been paid since March 2020.