RBC I For the fourth straight month, the June unemployment rate is down slightly in Rio Blanco County, using seasonally non-adjusted figures. Unemployment numbers are down more than 1.8 percent from June 2013.
Unemployment as of June 2013 was 6.0 percent, using the same seasonally non-adjusted figures. Since early in 2014, the jobless numbers in Rio Blanco have continued to fall, however slowly, to 4.2 percent in June 2014.
That drop to 4.2 percent is a drop of 0.1 percent from 4.3 percent in May.
For June, there were 4,308 in the available county workforce, and, of those, 4,129 were employed while 179 were without jobs.
In May, there were 4,216 workers in the available county work pool. Of those, 4,033 were employed, and 183 were unemployed.
In June 2013, there were 4,347 workers available in the county workforce. Of those, 4,087 were gainfully employed while 260 potential workers were jobless.
Statewide, the Colorado unemployment figures continue to drop.
In Colorado, the unemployment rate in June 2013 was 7.3 percent, and that had fallen to 5.5 percent in May 2014 and stood at 5.4 percent for June 2014.
The Colorado county with the highest unemployment rate in June was Castillo County (county seat San Luis), the only county in the state that had an unemployment rate over 10 percent during June and May. In June, the rate had dropped to 10.1 percent, in May it stood at 11.6 percent. One year ago, while there were several counties with unemployment in excess of 10 percent, Castillo was still the highest with 12.5 percent.
While no other counties reported unemployment in excess of 10 percent for the past two months, the June 2013 statistics showed six counties above 10 percent: Castillo at 12.5 percent; Conejos (county seat Conejos) at 11.5 percent; Saguache (Saguache) and Huerfano (Walsenburg) at 11.4 percent; Las Animas (Trinidad) at 10.5 percent and Pueblo (Pueblo) at 10.1 percent. By June this year, things were looking up for Pueblo County, where the rate had dropped to 7.8 percent.
The county with the lowest unemployment rate in the state during June was Hinsdale County (Lake City) with a 2.3 percent jobless rate. The other five counties with unemployment rates below 3 percent were: Baca (Springfield) and Cheyenne (Cheyenne Wells) at 2.5 percent; Yuma (Wray) and Mineral (Creede) counties with a 2.8 percent rate; and Jackson County (Walden) with a 2.9 percent rate.
