Colorado adds more jobs in February

Colorado gained 33,144 jobs in February 2012 compared to February of 2011, and the non-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate fell year-over-year from 9.0 percent to 8.2 percent. According to the most recent employment data, collected through the Household Survey and released today by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and the BLS, total employment in February, not seasonally adjusted, rose to 2.49 million jobs. The labor force also increased from February 2011 to February 2012.

In month-to-month comparisons, the unemployment rate decreased from 8.4 percent during January to 8.2 percent during February as 16,100 jobs were gained. Seasonally, employment tends to rise from January to February.



From February 2011 to February 2012, total employment rose 1.3 percent, while the labor force rose 0.4 percent. The total labor force in February included 2.71 million workers.

As can be seen in the second graph, total employment and total workforce size have risen slightly, month-over-month, after falling for the previous three months. Year over year, employment rose and the labor force rose. However, both remain well below July 2008 peaks.



The employment total is now 139,000 jobs below the peak levels experienced during July 2008 when there were 2.63 million employed workers. Compared to the labor force peak in July 2008, the labor force is now down by more than 51,000 workers.

In the third graph is shown the year-over-year comparisons, by percent, for total employment. February 2012 was the 14th month in a row showing a positive year-over-year change in total employment. The 14 months of increases followed 28 months in a row of negative job growth in year-over-year comparisons.



The graph also shows the year-over-change in the labor force. Total labor force size rose slightly from February 2011 to February 2012, and follows a slight decrease that occurred form January 2011 to January 2012. The labor force size had shrunk, year over year, for 18 months in a row from July 2009 to December 2010.

These numbers come from the Household Survey employment data, so the size of the workforce is dependent on the number of people stating that they are actively looking for work if not employed. Discouraged workers who have stopped looking for work are excluded. On the other hand, the Household Survey picks up on small business and start-up employment that may be missed by the Establishment Survey, the other commonly-used measure of employment.

Note: This analysis reflects newly revised data released in January. In most cases, total employment was revised upward for the months of 2011.