Colorado’s unemployment rate fell in November for a fifth consecutive month , the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment reported Friday.

The state’s 5.1% jobless rate last month was down from 5.4% in October; it has dropped a full percentage point since July as 30,000 more people held jobs in November than did four months earlier. Colorado’s unemployment rate in November was the lowest since it was 4.7% in March 2020, just as the pandemic was starting to grip the state, but remains more than double the 2.5% rate it reached in late 2019 before the pandemic.

Colorado Springs recovers jobs lost during early months of pandemic

Unemployment rates in Colorado’s metro areas were a mixed bag – falling in Denver from 4.6% in October to 4.5% in November and declining in Pueblo from 6.8% to 6.6% during the same period. But rates remained unchanged at 4.6% in Colorado Springs, 4.7% in Grand Junction, 3.8% in Fort Collins and 3.5% in Boulder. Greeley’s jobless rate edged up from 4.5% in October to 4.6% in November.

The department also reported that Colorado employers added 9,800 people to payrolls in November, the third consecutive month in which job growth approached 10,000 jobs. That growth has put the state within a few months of recovering the 375,800 jobs lost during the first two months of the pandemic, when a statewide stay-at-home order and other restrictions on businesses triggered widespread layoffs.

Colorado unemployment rate falls to lowest level of pandemic

The payroll data comes from a survey of employers, while the employment rate is compiled from a survey of households.

Ryan Gedney, the department’s senior economist, forecast that the state would regain those jobs by the end of the first quarter or sometime during the second quarter. Statewide payrolls remain about 50,000 below the levels reached before the pandemic, though Gedney expects the gap to close by about 20,000 through annual revisions in March that incorporate data from unemployment insurance reports that employers file quarterly.

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“Colorado is hiring. Every day more Coloradans are joining innovative companies, starting new careers, or growing small businesses,” Gov. Jared Polis said Friday in a news release touting the growth.

Much of the state’s payroll growth in November came from professional and business services, which includes defense contractors and technology businesses; education and health care; and financial services. The three sectors generated more than three-fourths of the payroll jobs added in November. Employment fell in the leisure and hospitality sector, likely as a result of a slow start to the ski season, Gedney said.

Colorado’s unemployment rate unchanged at 6.2%

The Colorado Springs area added 1,000 payroll jobs in November, while the Denver area added 10,400. Boulder, Grand Junction, Greeley and Pueblo each added 200-300 jobs and Fort Collins lost 300 jobs. The rest of the state lost 2,200 jobs. The Colorado Springs area in October recovered all of the jobs lost in the pandemic and the Denver area has recovered more than 90% of its pre-pandemic employment level.