Colorado’s labor market continued a pattern of slowing job growth in August, economists said.
Preliminary jobs data released Friday showed the state recorded a net gain of 2,400 jobs from July to August, according to the state Department of Labor and Employment.
The state’s unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage point to 4.2 percent. The labor force and number of people employed also ticked down slightly.
The national unemployment rate was 5.1 percent, down from 5.3 percent in July.
Since June, Colorado has seen a net gain of 3,000 jobs, reflecting an upward adjustment of July numbers that initially showed . All told, there were 2.52 million jobs in August.
“I’m confident the payroll jobs survey is showing us slowing jobs growth, but just not by how much,” state economist Alexandra Hall said. “Our labor market has been pretty flat over the year.”
In August, the biggest private-sector boosts came from the education, health services, business services and construction sectors, the latter of which . Declines came in leisure and hospitality, trade, transportation and utilities.
Brian Lewandowski, associate director of the Business Research Division at the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, said that although the velocity of job growth has definitely slowed during the past six months, it is still firmly in the positive column.
“We were late entering the recession, as a state, compared to the nation, and we were early exiting the recession. We’ve actually been outperforming the nation and almost every other state in year-over-year job growth. We’re at a point now where we’re looking a little bit more average,” Lewandowski said. “Average isn’t bad right now, but it’s not a place we’ve been for a while in Colorado.”
In August, Colorado was at 1.9 percent growth year over year, he said. Nationally, growth was 2.1 percent.
