RBC I After a rise in the Rio Blanco County unemployment rate between May and June, the jobless rate fell a full percentage point in July and is also below the rate for July 2014.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has announced that the unemployment rate for Rio Blanco County fell from 6.2 percent in June to 5.2 percent in July and from the 5.4 percent reported in July of 2014.
The monthly report, which was adjusted up by more than 1 percent at the beginning of the year due to “an occasional adjustment,” is just now returning to the percentages of unemployment reported a year ago.
The report states that in July, the Rio Blanco County labor force was 2,910 persons strong and that there were 2,759 residents who were employed and 151 listed as unemployed, to arrive at the 5.2 percent rate.
In June, the state department reported that there were 2,877 in the available employees in the county workforce with 2,700 holding jobs and 177 on unemployment for the 6.2 percent rate.
In July 2014, the CDLE reported that there were 3,137 in the available county workforce, and that there were 2,968 persons with jobs and 169 unemployed for a 5.4 percent jobless rate.
The downward trend continued for the overall Colorado state unemployment rate. In July this year, the state employment rate was 4.0 percent, which was down in contrast to June, when the overall rate was 4.5 percent, and compared to July 2014, when the rate was 4.9 percent.
The CDLE reported that 114,564 Coloradans were on unemployment in July this year and that the June 2015 number was 128,972 while there were 140,469 on the jobless list in July 2014.
There are 64 counties in Colorado, and only 20 of those counties had an unemployment rate higher than Rio Blanco County.
There were five Colorado counties in July that were at or above 6.5 percent unemployment, and the two highest of those counties was Huerfanco County (county seat Walsenburg) with an 8.2 jobless rate and Saguache County (Saguache) with a 7.5 rate. The other three counties, all tied with a 6.5 percent jobless rate, were Fremont (Canyon City), Costilla (San Luis) and Las Animas (Trinidad) counties.
There were also five counties in Colorado in July that reported unemployment rates of 2.5 percent or lower.
The lowest jobless rate in Colorado for July was turned in by Dolores County (Dove Creek) at 1.9 percent followed by Baca County (Springfield) at 2.0 percent, Phillips County (Holyoke) at 2.3 percent, San Juan County (Silverton) at 2.4 percent and Kit Carson County (Burlington) at 2.5 percent.
