RBC I The same number of Rio Blanco County residents were receiving unemployment in October as there were in September of this year, but because the available workforce was down slightly, the Rio Blanco County jobless rate rose from 4.5 percent in September to 4.6 percent in October.
In both months, there were 128 persons listed on unemployment but the available workforce in Rio Blanco County was 2,805 persons in October and 2,832 in September, meaning more were working in September.
In October, there were 2,805 persons in the workforce, there were 2,677 employed workers and 128 jobless for a jobless rate of 4.6 percent. In September, there were 2,832 in the workforce, 2,704 who were working and 128 jobless for a jobless rate of 4.5 percent.
Both rates are up from a year ago, as the October 2014 jobless rate was 4.3 percent. At that time, there were 2,945 in the workforce, 2,819 were working and there were only 126 on jobless benefits for an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent.
Overall in Colorado, the jobless rate held steady from September to October with both months at 3.3 percent in the non-seasonably adjusted labor force statistics.
In October of this year, there were 2,814,657 in the state workforce with 2,721,656 holding jobs and 93,001 on unemployment. In September, there were, 2,810,511 persons in the available state workforce while 2,717,052 were working. There were 93,459 on unemployment for an equal 3.3 percent jobless rate. In October 2014, the state jobless rate was 4.0 percent compared with 2,836,380 in the state labor force, 2,723,226 were working and 113,154 were unemployed.
In October, of Colorado’s 64 counties, Rio Blanco County was ranked behind 52 counties that have lower jobless rates, three other counties also had a 4.6 percent unemployment rate, the same as Rio Blanco County, and nine counties had higher unemployment rates.
The county with the lowest jobless rate (and county seat) in October of this year was Dolores County (Dove Creek) with 1.6 percent followed by Baca County (Springfield) with 1.8 percent as the only two Colorado counties with a jobless rate below 2 percent. The next three counties with the lowest jobless rates (and county seats) were Phillips (Holyoke) and Kiowa (Eads) with 2.1 percent jobless rates and tied for fifth were Cheyenne (Cheyenne Wells), Hinsdale (Lake City), Kit Carson (Burlington) and Washington (Akron).
The county with the highest jobless rate is Huerfano (Walsenberg) with 6.1 percent, followed by Fremont (Canon City) with 5.2 percent, Costilla (San Luis) with 5.0 percent and Saguache (Saguache) is fourth with 4.9 percent unemployment. Four counties are tied for fifth place with unemployment rates of 4.8 percent: Rio Grande (Del Norte), Otero (LaJunta), Delta (Delta).
