Colorado’s unemployment rate fell four-tenths of a percentage point to 4.4 percent in September as teachers returned to classrooms for the fall term, state economists said today.
The rate compared with 4.8 percent in August and 5 percent in September 2005, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said in its monthly report. The national unemployment rate dipped one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.6 percent last month.
“September is a month of transition in the labor market as summer activities wind down and the school year begins,” Rick Grice, the department’s executive director, said in a statement.
The total number of people in the nonagricultural work force was essentially unchanged at nearly 2.3 million, up 700 jobs from September 2005 based on the state’s seasonally adjusted figures.
Although businesses continued to add jobs, economists said the rate of growth for a 12-month period ending in September was the slowest in nearly two years.
Five of the 11 industry sectors reported job losses of less than 1,000 apiece, with the largest in trade, transportation and utilities, according to seasonally adjusted figures.
The leisure and hospitality sector led all others in job gains, with 1,100, followed by construction with 900 and government, where public education jobs are houses, with 500 jobs.
